Last Day!

I can’t believe it’s my last day today. I’m not exactly sure of the plan for the day except that I am observing Kindergarten at 2:30. I have mini lessons ready to go just in case and I will be ready to do morning meeting since it’s Friday and the kids get to choose the greeting and activity. The afternoon should be easy, and I have a feeling there is some sort of surprise planned for me at some point, from some of the things kids said throughout the week. The principal came in this morning to see how I was doing and gave me the write up from when he observed me. My CT seems to be busy this morning and hasn’t been in the room much.

The morning went by as usual. My CT ran morning meeting and all of the lessons, so it was pretty easy. Lots of kids gave me hugs when they came in today and one girl even got me a sticker book. It was really cute! I wore a blue star since today is class color day and our class picked to wear the color blue. It’s pretty cool because everyone came in wearing blue today.

In the afternoon, my CT told me to go make copies of something. When I came back, the class was all hiding and they surprised me with cupcakes and a huge bag of gifts. It was adorable and so much fun! I was really touched ☺ This experience has been amazing and I can’t wait to have my own class.

Last Thursday

Today I did some teaching in the morning and observed the rest of the day. I went over to observe another first grade teacher during the morning as well. It was interesting to see how she worked her Daily 5 and guided reading. I feel like her guided reading style would probably suit me better than the way my CT does it. Instead of having them all read the same book at the same time, she had each group member reading a book at their level silently. When they were stuck on a word they let her know and she would work it out with them. After they finished a book, she would have a book talk with them asking who was in the book, when it happened, what happened, where it happened, the problem and the solution. If they couldn’t give a good answer to anything she had them reread it. The kids seemed really focused. I asked her how she knows if they skip words or if they are really reading it. She said they have to be able to answer the questions, and they know that they have to ask themselves if the words match and make sense. If not they need to go back. They practice those strategies a lot in the beginning of the year.

I did two mini lessons this morning and ran yellow group. My minis were on the y sound at the end of words and on fantasy vs. reality. They went really well. The kids liked these fantasy vs. reality task cards that I had. I didn’t print them out; I just used the pdf file and put them up on the Smartboard. It worked really well and if I do a mini tomorrow, I may use other task cards in the same way. I have some more for fact vs. opinion that are really cool.

I can’t believe tomorrow is my last day. I’m excited but also kind of sad about that. I love the kids in my class and have really had so much fun being here. I can only hope to have a class as good as this one when I start teaching.

Quiet day

I wasn’t quite sure which lessons I’m doing in the morning today, so I over planned a little bit. It was lucky because my CT did think I was doing all of the mini lessons. I also came in early to work on guided reading and grab a few more books for that. That was helpful today when I pulled two guided reading groups. I did a lesson on cause and effect using the Smartboard, one on summarizing a story using the book we read on Monday, and one on Fact vs. Opinion. They all went well and the class was pretty good for me today. My CT needed to leave the room and go on a conference call so I had another teacher in the room with me for a bit and they were great. I don’t really understand it, but they seem to behave better for me when my CT is not in the room. This is frustrating because I feel like she sees more of the bad than the good. But, I got my evaluation from her today too and it was really glowing, so that was really nice to read. She also wrote me a letter of recommendation that is fantastic. I’m really relieved about all of that. She is going to email it to me so that I have it.
It was nice to observe most of the afternoon today too. I got to see how my CT does Problem Solving, which is a math program we do on Wednesdays. I started it, so I hadn’t seen her do a lesson with it yet. She did it the same way I did, but added a few helpful hints. She also reviewed homework with them, which was something I hadn’t done. They have all been doing well on their homework anyway, but it probably was a good idea to expose them to it first. The problem is just like the two examples done in class.

My favorite part of the day was writing young authors books. The class started publishing their first few pages into their real books from their dummy books. They are looking really great. I like the way they are working on them. Now they will start doing 3 pages at a time in the dummy book, then publishing three pages, going back and forth until they are finished.

At the end of the day, we were coming back from music. Music is outside in the trailers so we always have trouble coming into the building without running. I told them that if they could walk all the way back to the classroom without running, we’d play a game. Luckily, that worked and we resumed out game of 7-up that we didn’t get to finish yesterday.

Observing 4th and 6th

I did lots of observing today, which was a nice break and extremely interesting. The day started with a great meeting and presentation about using vocabulary in lessons, especially for ELL students, but really for everyone. She gave some fantastic ideas about how to do that. Her presentation was fantastic and it will be on the intranet. I plan on downloading it while I have access to it and saving that. After morning meeting this morning, I went to 4th grade to observe a math lesson. They are using a new math program in the upper grades so that was interesting to see. It is a Smartboard integrated program called enVision math. The lessons are done step by step on the Smartboard, with a vocab, a lesson, guided practice, and individual practice. The focus was much more on content than on management, which is a big difference from 1st grade. I like the way the tables were organized – clusters of desks. I noticed that she differentiated by letting anyone having trouble with the individual assignment to come work with her in a guided practice at the board. The only trouble was that the students that finished early had nothing to keep them occupied after so the room got a little loud.

In the afternoon, I observed a 6th grade math class. I think it’s funny how all the teachers seem to want me to observe during math time. This was a class mixed up of all the 6th grade students, who have different homeroom teachers. It seems like they start mixing up the classes a bit to get them ready for Middle School. The 6th graders were using laptops for math class. The teacher instructed them using the Smartboard on where to go and how to play a few of the game she wanted them to play – on angles, measuring with a protractor, and symmetry. Then they were called by row to go get a laptop from the laptop cart, which is shared throughout the school. They all worked individually on their assignment. All of them seemed to be on task and the teacher circulated around the room helping students, giving pointers, and asking which games they liked the best and why. I was impressed with her use of technology, though I wish I had gotten to see a little more instruction.

When I got back, our first graders were doing pattern blocks for math. I helped check work as they went along. Then we all took a picture, which I am using as part of my gifts to the class, before I took them to library. When they got back, we played 7-up until buses were called.

Monday with a 2nd Grade Observation

The day started off slightly better. Morning meeting went pretty well and I ran the first few mini lessons. It was good to finally be back to a normal schedule this afternoon, now that PSSA is over. The afternoon was interesting because I observed a second grade math lesson. It was really nice to see how another class was set up and how it worked. I liked her classroom setup with desks instead of tables. I also liked the class marble idea. The teacher started with an empty jar of marbles, and if the class id doing well, they can add marbles. If they are not, they take away marbles. If the jar gets full, the class wins a party. It was also interesting to see how she differentiated activities and handled giving multi-step directions. She repeated the three steps, had them repeat it 3 times, then had two students stand up and recite the directions. She put on some quiet music while they worked, that seemed to keep them a little calmer. She had 3 different activities. The first was a quiet game in pairs. The second was an individual worksheet and the third was another worksheet, which she had differentiated. She placed two different worksheets on the ground and put Popsicle sticks with students’ names underneath the one that they should be doing. She also explained that if one seems easier than the other, it’s not because some people are not smart or not good at math, it just means it’s what’s right for them. I asked her why she explained it and she said she got a letter from a parent saying that her student came home saying that he always gets harder papers than everyone else. She asked what would happen if she got a paper that was too hard – they’d get frustrated. What if it was too easy? They’d zip through it in a second. She said this is the paper that is right for you. I also liked her technique when the Smartboard wasn’t working of asking them to send positive energy to the Smartboard as she was working on it. They all held out their hands at the board. It gave them a thought to think about and something to occupy them until it worked. I also really liked her energizer activity that she did before the lesson. The class is making up a class dance and they add steps to it every once in a while. They just count and on each number they have another dance move that they do.

St. Patrick's Day

This morning went well! The kids seemed to be in a good mood and they were calmer. My CT had green chocolate coins that she put on everyone’s desk for St. Patrick’s Day. They were excited and I was worried that it would start the day off on a crazy note, but it actually was fine. I reminded them that they needed to do all of their morning jobs if they wanted to eat their chocolate. They did a really good job and all of them were working on their morning work when it was time for them to meet for morning meeting. They all go into the circle quickly and we did a fast “Top of the Morning” greeting for St. Patrick’s Day. We played 4 Corners for ST. Patrick’s Day too since our 4 corners are St. Patrick’s Day related. We have spring, flowers, leprechaun, and 4 leaf clover. The game went well and they were good. We did two rounds before it was time to line up for art. At that time, one girl pushed to get to the front of the line. She fell down and go upset. She is already in trouble for hitting and hurting other kids and she knows she needs to be at the end of the line all week anyway. I told her this and she got angry. She hid in the corner of the room. My CT didn’t step in this time, and I was proud of myself that I got her to move. I told the class to go ahead to the first stopping point, and I was glad she followed the class after they left.

I went to go pick up the class at art and it was a madhouse. There was a volunteer in from Art Goes to School and they were writing a story about a painting. It seemed fun but they were all yelling and calling out and screaming! The volunteer read me the story they created and it was really cute. We got them in line and after a few minutes, finally got them to quiet down. I told them they needed to be really quiet in the hall because PSSA testing was going on. I was glad they seemed to calm down quick and I read them a story for the 6-7 minutes we had until it was time for recess.

The rest of the day was kind of a blur. We did Daily 5, which went well except for one round. I met with red group and two students on either side of the table were giving me trouble. I gave them a book about a crab and one said it made him seasick. The other one was just looking for attention so he kept hitting the book on the table and saying “ow.” Then I said we needed to get through the book and they both sat on the floor. I gave them the choice of sitting on their chair or reading it in time out. One sat up, the other didn’t. He then got upset saying we always read and never do activities in that group. I told him we never do activities because we can’t get through a book first. I said if we got through the book, we’d do an activity. Instead, he got really upset, and went to time out, saying he was going to stay there forever. My CT went to talk to him but he didn’t tell her why he was upset. I talked to him afterwards and her too and he finally came back when we started writing. We did a fun writing exercise where they got to write about either finding a four leaf clover or a leprechaun.

At the end of the day, we went out with the rest of the first grade classes to play dodgeball. It was so nice outside! That was really fun and we all had a great time. When we came in one teacher asked me to sit with her class for a few minutes because she needed to do something. I did and I was proud to go in and get them involved playing a game of 7-up before they called buses. When the teacher came back, everything was quiet and calm. She thanked me. That was a nice end to the day.

Wednesday

This morning was interesting because the school had a staff meeting with the superintendent about next year’s budget. It wasn’t a big surprise that there is a deficit and there will be cuts throughout the district next year. I was noticing my problem with time outs a little more. I have trouble because every student starts talking at once and I’m not sure who started it. Then if I redirect them and get them all quiet, they are usually all doing the right thing until it breaks down again. It seems like it’s all or nothing and I have a hard time getting it to a point where they are mostly good with only a few calling out for a sustained amount of time. I do feel like a I would use a slightly different behavior management system. I have been reading about a bunch of other ideas on some teacher discussion boards online and I feel like some of them may work better for me than the system in place in my current classroom. I would like to try new things, but I feel like my last 1 and a half weeks here is not a good time to start a new plan. I plan on mapping out my own plans and coming up with a system that will fit my own teaching style better in my own classroom.

Meanwhile, my CT was filling out my final evaluation form throughout my class and it was nerve-wracking. My morning was better than yesterday morning but I felt like I was being watched the whole time. When they all came in from gym, they all wanted a drink of water. I told them to line up quietly and get one drink then go right back into the classroom. My CT was impressed that it worked so well, but she gave me some tips for next time – to have a teacher helper go back and count, giving them each 3 seconds, then by calling them to go one row at a time. I didn’t think of that at the time, but I’m glad it didn’t lead to chaos.

The rest of the afternoon went pretty smoothly. I ran my last pit lesson today on the American Flag and it went really well. The kids were fascinated by the pictures of old flags and how it has changed through the years. They also really liked learning about the rules for the flag and how it needs to be raised and lowered and things like that. I also had a flag concentration game that they loves, as well as websites that show the flags for every country and every state. They were amazed to see all those flags. I emailed the websites to all of the teachers so they could look more closely in their own classroom.

The day came to an end fast. We played a shape song about 3D shapes that I found on YouTube. It was great! It’s a catchy song, but not annoying, and all the kids were singing it by the end. It was posted by a kindergarten teacher, and lots of teachers commented how they liked it. Finally, we made 3D shapes together out of paper. The kids had some trouble with them at first, but we all did one together in a circle first and that let them get the hang of it. Once they figured them out and finished one, they were able to come up and choose another one to do independently. They had fun and figured out that they could put a triangular prism on top of a cube to make a house. One student even started to make a stage and a band playing on it with his 3D shapes. That was impressive, especially because we was close to tears a few minutes before thinking he couldn’t do it. The day ended quickly and we needed to clean up fast!