It’s crazy sock day! I ran morning meeting today and I guessed correctly that we’d be doing the shoe greeting so everyone could see everyone’s crazy socks. Everyone puts one shoe in the middle of the circle and one at a time, someone picks a shoe and greets that person. They also get to choose their activity on Friday, so we played Magic Squares. That is my favorite activity so far too. The teacher comes up with a pattern of “stepping stones” using sample size carpet squares. Going around the circle, each student takes a turn trying to figure out the pattern of where to step. When they hit a wrong square, the teacher rings a bell and the next person tries.
During Daily 5 today, my CT didn’t pull any guided reading groups. Instead, for the mini lessons, we had the students present their power points. We made sure they were all fixed up and then we emailed them to their parents after they were presented. We’ve already gotten some great parent replies.
My CT was out for the afternoon, so I worked with a substitute teacher. I taught all afternoon. I had lots of reminders on my desk to make sure one girl was packed up to leave early at 1, to share one more power point that we didn’t get to, to share parent emails privately with the students who got replies, and the try to get students who didn’t guess the candy heart jar to put in their guesses. I got everything done except remind the students whose parents sent emails. All of my lessons went well except at the very very end of the day. I had the class graphing candy hearts in math and they got a little out of hand. I was embarrassed when another teacher from a neighboring classroom came over and asked us to keep it down. The sub I was with is not yet certified; she has an emergency certification from the state, but will be pursuing her teaching certification in the coming year. I felt more experienced than her. She didn’t do a whole lot to help me manage the class, so I felt really on my own. That plus me giving them candy hearts really made them crazy. At the very end I told them that I was really sad that they couldn’t keep their self control and that I don’t think I’ll be bringing in any more candy for future math games. The worst was when we played around the world right after math. One student made it all the way around the world and when he made it he yelled “I MADE IT ALL THE WAY AROUND THE WORLD!” Everyone erupted laughing at the outburst. That was when the other teacher came by to ask us to quiet down. The day ended quickly and I was exhausted. I’m very glad it’s the weekend.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Thursday, February 10, 2011
T-H-U-R-S-D-A-Y Thursday!
I ran morning meeting again today along with a 6th grade peer mediator who did a greeting and activity on self-esteem. We did morning meeting a little out of order this morning, starting with shares, then doing the greeting and activity, then doing chart. We did that because the peer mediator came a little bit late to our classroom. I observed by CT doing guided reading groups today too. I will pick up the highest level next week. I watched a lower level one too and then I helped a parent volunteer by copying pages for books the class is making at the “work on writing” center. My CT was talking to the parent for a little bit while the students watched a video on beginning-middle-end. After the video, I talked to them a little about it as my CT finished up. The whole class was really well-behaved this morning, and the boy from yesterday who came in with his mom seemed much happier than he was yesterday but also much more behaved.
After lunch, my CT took time to do her lessons because she will be out tomorrow afternoon. I will do my planned lessons tomorrow with the sub. Pit was fun and I’m glad I only have one more lesson to do in this unit besides the review. The class really enjoyed the rolling wheels lesson, and we had a video of Bill Nye the Science Guy doing motion experiments that they loved. We used it to finish off the lesson, but didn’t finish it. That’s good because we can continue it if we run short another time. The class had fun during math today using calculators to count by 2’s 5’s and 10’s. I demonstrated it on the Smartboard using online-calculator.com. It was hard to find a calculator that did it the right way. Some don’t keep counting if you just keep hitting the equal button. Each of the students needed some help once they got a calculator of their own to use. They still need more practice but seem to be getting it much better now.
The end of the day went quickly again because they had indoor recess and computers. They mostly finished their power points so that is exciting, and many will present them tomorrow. My CT will also email them to parents. They are all really proud of their presentations.
The day ended when one of the school buses broke down and all the kids came back into the building. We did a lot of calling parents who were waiting at the bus stops to let them know that another bus was on the way. Luckily the new bus came pretty quickly and we were out of there about 20 minutes later than usual. It was interesting to see how the school handled it. The principal came in and we had the whole bus of kids sit in the pit. They asked for a cell phone number for moms that would be waiting at the bus stops so they could let everyone know that a new bus was coming and the kids would be home soon. The principal encouraged parents not to come pick up their kids to avoid confusion.
After lunch, my CT took time to do her lessons because she will be out tomorrow afternoon. I will do my planned lessons tomorrow with the sub. Pit was fun and I’m glad I only have one more lesson to do in this unit besides the review. The class really enjoyed the rolling wheels lesson, and we had a video of Bill Nye the Science Guy doing motion experiments that they loved. We used it to finish off the lesson, but didn’t finish it. That’s good because we can continue it if we run short another time. The class had fun during math today using calculators to count by 2’s 5’s and 10’s. I demonstrated it on the Smartboard using online-calculator.com. It was hard to find a calculator that did it the right way. Some don’t keep counting if you just keep hitting the equal button. Each of the students needed some help once they got a calculator of their own to use. They still need more practice but seem to be getting it much better now.
The end of the day went quickly again because they had indoor recess and computers. They mostly finished their power points so that is exciting, and many will present them tomorrow. My CT will also email them to parents. They are all really proud of their presentations.
The day ended when one of the school buses broke down and all the kids came back into the building. We did a lot of calling parents who were waiting at the bus stops to let them know that another bus was on the way. Luckily the new bus came pretty quickly and we were out of there about 20 minutes later than usual. It was interesting to see how the school handled it. The principal came in and we had the whole bus of kids sit in the pit. They asked for a cell phone number for moms that would be waiting at the bus stops so they could let everyone know that a new bus was coming and the kids would be home soon. The principal encouraged parents not to come pick up their kids to avoid confusion.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
First Wednesday in a While
I ran morning meeting this morning and it went pretty well. Our greeting was the “friendship claw” which is a gesture I learned at an underground comedy show in Brooklyn. The only problem I had was during the activity. We played Wonderball, and the ball goes around the circle and whoever it lands on it out. The ball landed on one student who does have some behavior and anger issues, and she got very angry and upset and would not move out of the circle. I told her to take a time out but she wouldn’t budge. My CT needed to take her aside and talk to her. She basically asked her how she could have handled that better and that she can’t act like that in school. The rest of the game went very well, and we had a winner. I had the class do a cheer for her – there is a list of cheers that they do and I had her pick her favorite for the class to give her.
I did my math lesson this afternoon and the problem solving lesson went pretty well. The problems are pretty easy for them to solve. After problem solving, we had some time, so I had them get into a circle and play “Sparkle.” We counted by 2’s and had the people who said 16 and 24 sit down. The afternoon wiggles were certainly hitting them hard. I had to wait for them to quiet down a few times, so we didn’t have enough time to get out calculators like I wanted to show them how to check their work on their skip counting worksheets. We will work on that tomorrow though.
I seems like next week I will pick up my first guided reading group – the highest reading level. My CT gave me a great unit on a Magic Treehouse chapter book that I think I will use with them.
A parent came in in the afternoon with her son who is in our class. He left early, but he told him mom on the way out that he got two time outs. His mom asked why and he said he didn’t know. They came back to ask my CT and I. We explained what he was doing and came up with a plan to send home a sheet every day to celebrate the times he does not get time outs and to explain why and time outs were given. I felt a little pressure trying to explain to the parent why I gave her son a time out, but I felt it was justified at the time. He was being silly and misbehaving but nothing specific. Anyway, that wasn’t too bad and we all agreed that that behavior plan should work well. It’ll be interesting to see if his behavior is any better starting tomorrow.
I did my math lesson this afternoon and the problem solving lesson went pretty well. The problems are pretty easy for them to solve. After problem solving, we had some time, so I had them get into a circle and play “Sparkle.” We counted by 2’s and had the people who said 16 and 24 sit down. The afternoon wiggles were certainly hitting them hard. I had to wait for them to quiet down a few times, so we didn’t have enough time to get out calculators like I wanted to show them how to check their work on their skip counting worksheets. We will work on that tomorrow though.
I seems like next week I will pick up my first guided reading group – the highest reading level. My CT gave me a great unit on a Magic Treehouse chapter book that I think I will use with them.
A parent came in in the afternoon with her son who is in our class. He left early, but he told him mom on the way out that he got two time outs. His mom asked why and he said he didn’t know. They came back to ask my CT and I. We explained what he was doing and came up with a plan to send home a sheet every day to celebrate the times he does not get time outs and to explain why and time outs were given. I felt a little pressure trying to explain to the parent why I gave her son a time out, but I felt it was justified at the time. He was being silly and misbehaving but nothing specific. Anyway, that wasn’t too bad and we all agreed that that behavior plan should work well. It’ll be interesting to see if his behavior is any better starting tomorrow.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Crazy Tuesday
I was really looking forward to morning meeting this morning because it was my first time leading it. Unfortunately, 6th graders from the Environmental group came to our class to do a morning meeting activity. So, my morning meeting duties got pushed to tomorrow. I did, at least, get to run the daily chart reading and shares. Tomorrow I will do the greeting and activity that I had planned and I will also run the meeting on Thursday and possibly Friday as well.
My CT told me that this Friday she will also be taking half a personal day because she needs to go with her daughter to an appointment. I will be teaching all afternoon, so it won’t matter much. It should be interesting to see how that goes though. I think I will feel more comfortable being more on my own, but we’ll see.
The afternoon went by pretty quickly. I did handwriting, poetry, science in pit, and math. Handwriting went very well. Poetry was a little harder because I thought I was running short on time, though I wasn’t. We squeezed poetry in, but the class started getting a little rowdy. Our TA was a sub today so he had also given the conflicting instructions to what I had given them. I told the class to freeze and repeated my directions, then I told them if they had already done it the other way, that is ok too. Pit wasn’t bad today either – I ran it myself. It was difficult getting volunteers to get the zoomers working well – I had to practice them for days just to figure them out, so they weren’t the best tools to be using, but a few kids got the hang of it after a few tries. They seemed excited to try them back in their classrooms. I set up a little science center in my classroom with all of the materials from our pit experiments so that we can work on them when there is spare time. They are especially useful during indoor recess.
The first grade teachers met today during specials to plan for the next few weeks. We planned our Valentines Day party for Monday as well. It looks like after our Balance and Motion unit, the other student teacher and I will trade off with the other teachers like they usually do for pit lessons, and we will go back to having pit every other day instead of every day.
My CT told me that this Friday she will also be taking half a personal day because she needs to go with her daughter to an appointment. I will be teaching all afternoon, so it won’t matter much. It should be interesting to see how that goes though. I think I will feel more comfortable being more on my own, but we’ll see.
The afternoon went by pretty quickly. I did handwriting, poetry, science in pit, and math. Handwriting went very well. Poetry was a little harder because I thought I was running short on time, though I wasn’t. We squeezed poetry in, but the class started getting a little rowdy. Our TA was a sub today so he had also given the conflicting instructions to what I had given them. I told the class to freeze and repeated my directions, then I told them if they had already done it the other way, that is ok too. Pit wasn’t bad today either – I ran it myself. It was difficult getting volunteers to get the zoomers working well – I had to practice them for days just to figure them out, so they weren’t the best tools to be using, but a few kids got the hang of it after a few tries. They seemed excited to try them back in their classrooms. I set up a little science center in my classroom with all of the materials from our pit experiments so that we can work on them when there is spare time. They are especially useful during indoor recess.
The first grade teachers met today during specials to plan for the next few weeks. We planned our Valentines Day party for Monday as well. It looks like after our Balance and Motion unit, the other student teacher and I will trade off with the other teachers like they usually do for pit lessons, and we will go back to having pit every other day instead of every day.
Monday, February 7, 2011
Monday Again
This morning, I arrived early to observe the peer mediator session before school. They introduced an activity for morning meeting where the mediators will go into classrooms and give students a paper heart. They will read a story where a child’s self esteem gets knocked down. Each time something happens to hurt the student in the story, the class crinkles their heart. At the end, all of the crinkles represent something that hurt their self esteem. While I was listening to that, I helped the other student teacher set up for our pit lesson this afternoon on tops. We got doodle tops and tops made out of straws to show the students. We also found a video on YouTube to introduce the tops lesson.
I taught the words of the week and chunk of the week this morning too. The words of the week lesson went very well. I am getting used to doing that. The chunk of the week was a little more difficult because the chunk was “-ing.” Many of the students wanted to use verbs like “running,” “jumping,” “swimming,” etc. But the chunk was really for words that had –ing as a part of the word, not as an ending (like ring, thing, swing, spring, etc.). That was probably something I should have clarified beforehand.
After lunch, I did the science and math lessons. In science today, I co-taught with the other student teacher in pit. We started the Motion part of the Balance and Motion unit. The subject was tops. We showed a video about spinning tops that the class really enjoyed. They got a little too excited though, and we needed to get them back on task after the video ended. There wasn’t a whole lot to this particular lesson, so we had to stretch out the material a bit. Most of the lesson consists of having a class make tops of their own, but with a large group of 62, we couldn’t do that in that time period. Instead, the classes will have opportunities to make tops later in their own classrooms. We used a document camera on the floor to show the tops spinning on the ground. That worked really well because everyone could see.
I wasn’t 100% sure what to do for math today, so I was really surprised my lesson went so well. I had a few Smartboard games and a cool interactive hundred chart to use to show patterns of numbers, and a basic plan, but it didn’t seem quite long enough. We counted by tens first, then fives. Then we did a worksheet together. The class was getting antsy so I told them I had another worksheet or a game and we could do the game if they were well behaved and quiet. If not, I said we’d have to go back to our desks to work on the worksheet. That helped them settle down a lot and we played a Smartboard game using the hundreds board. When that was over, I still had a chunk of time to fill. On the spot, I decided to give each table one blank hundreds chart. We started with the captain and we had them quietly pass the paper around, each student adding the next number. I told them that when their table finished, they needed to turn the paper over and put their heads down so I would know they were done. Table 1 finished first. I used the game to explain to the class my new incentive board. Since we had filled up our hundreds board, I designed a new board with hearts that had each students’ name on it. I explained that they could stamp their hearts instead of signing the hundreds board. When they get 5 stamps, they’ll get to pick from the surprise box. Then they get 10, they can pick from the rewards chart. The winning table got to be the first four to stamp their hearts.
I taught the words of the week and chunk of the week this morning too. The words of the week lesson went very well. I am getting used to doing that. The chunk of the week was a little more difficult because the chunk was “-ing.” Many of the students wanted to use verbs like “running,” “jumping,” “swimming,” etc. But the chunk was really for words that had –ing as a part of the word, not as an ending (like ring, thing, swing, spring, etc.). That was probably something I should have clarified beforehand.
After lunch, I did the science and math lessons. In science today, I co-taught with the other student teacher in pit. We started the Motion part of the Balance and Motion unit. The subject was tops. We showed a video about spinning tops that the class really enjoyed. They got a little too excited though, and we needed to get them back on task after the video ended. There wasn’t a whole lot to this particular lesson, so we had to stretch out the material a bit. Most of the lesson consists of having a class make tops of their own, but with a large group of 62, we couldn’t do that in that time period. Instead, the classes will have opportunities to make tops later in their own classrooms. We used a document camera on the floor to show the tops spinning on the ground. That worked really well because everyone could see.
I wasn’t 100% sure what to do for math today, so I was really surprised my lesson went so well. I had a few Smartboard games and a cool interactive hundred chart to use to show patterns of numbers, and a basic plan, but it didn’t seem quite long enough. We counted by tens first, then fives. Then we did a worksheet together. The class was getting antsy so I told them I had another worksheet or a game and we could do the game if they were well behaved and quiet. If not, I said we’d have to go back to our desks to work on the worksheet. That helped them settle down a lot and we played a Smartboard game using the hundreds board. When that was over, I still had a chunk of time to fill. On the spot, I decided to give each table one blank hundreds chart. We started with the captain and we had them quietly pass the paper around, each student adding the next number. I told them that when their table finished, they needed to turn the paper over and put their heads down so I would know they were done. Table 1 finished first. I used the game to explain to the class my new incentive board. Since we had filled up our hundreds board, I designed a new board with hearts that had each students’ name on it. I explained that they could stamp their hearts instead of signing the hundreds board. When they get 5 stamps, they’ll get to pick from the surprise box. Then they get 10, they can pick from the rewards chart. The winning table got to be the first four to stamp their hearts.
Friday, February 4, 2011
Thursday's Post
posting on Friday morning because I didn't get a chance to get on here last night:
Well we had another snow day yesterday. I am all planned up through the end of next week, so I finally took a day to (mostly) relax. I fixed up a few lesson plans and did some work on the Drexel discussion boards, which is sometimes tough to fit in, but besides that, I exercised and cooked and tried to enjoy the day off.
The morning went by quickly and I didn’t have any lessons to do. The afternoon was pretty crazy though and I did a lot. It was definitely tiring. I went too long on my handwriting lesson. It was a new type of handwriting lesson, so I hadn’t tried it before. Instead of writing letters, they were writing words. I had them bring white boards to the front and practice writing. Then I had volunteers come up to write the words. Then they went back to their desks to complete the worksheets. I realized that this took too much time, and they did get plenty of chances to practice on their worksheets, so next time, I think I will just demonstrate the words on the white board or Smartboard and then have them go back to do their worksheets. That should speed it up. Because that lesson went too long, I have a mini word work lesson that I need to squeeze in tomorrow. I think I will try to do that after math tomorrow, since the math lesson tomorrow is a pretty quick one.
My science lesson in pit was ok today. It was my first time doing it alone. It was a little difficult to get 62 kids under control, but the other teachers helped when I needed it. I think I’ll get better at it, but 62 first graders are difficult to manage. They did seem to really like the lesson, which involved using wire and clothespins to balance a pencil on its point on top of a popsicle stick. The kids were definitely excited to try it and amazed to see the pencil balancing. I think the next few lessons will be even more exciting. Vanessa teaches on tomorrow, so at least I’ll get a little break while we go to pit.
Computers was pretty cool, and the class had fun putting together more of their power point presentations.
Well we had another snow day yesterday. I am all planned up through the end of next week, so I finally took a day to (mostly) relax. I fixed up a few lesson plans and did some work on the Drexel discussion boards, which is sometimes tough to fit in, but besides that, I exercised and cooked and tried to enjoy the day off.
The morning went by quickly and I didn’t have any lessons to do. The afternoon was pretty crazy though and I did a lot. It was definitely tiring. I went too long on my handwriting lesson. It was a new type of handwriting lesson, so I hadn’t tried it before. Instead of writing letters, they were writing words. I had them bring white boards to the front and practice writing. Then I had volunteers come up to write the words. Then they went back to their desks to complete the worksheets. I realized that this took too much time, and they did get plenty of chances to practice on their worksheets, so next time, I think I will just demonstrate the words on the white board or Smartboard and then have them go back to do their worksheets. That should speed it up. Because that lesson went too long, I have a mini word work lesson that I need to squeeze in tomorrow. I think I will try to do that after math tomorrow, since the math lesson tomorrow is a pretty quick one.
My science lesson in pit was ok today. It was my first time doing it alone. It was a little difficult to get 62 kids under control, but the other teachers helped when I needed it. I think I’ll get better at it, but 62 first graders are difficult to manage. They did seem to really like the lesson, which involved using wire and clothespins to balance a pencil on its point on top of a popsicle stick. The kids were definitely excited to try it and amazed to see the pencil balancing. I think the next few lessons will be even more exciting. Vanessa teaches on tomorrow, so at least I’ll get a little break while we go to pit.
Computers was pretty cool, and the class had fun putting together more of their power point presentations.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
No-Snow Tuesday
I’m glad today isn’t a snow day! It seemed to be heading in that direction based on the weather forecast, but I woke up this morning to find that it’s not so bad out yet and school is going on as scheduled, for once. This morning I met with the other student teacher to set up our lesson in pit again. We realized it’s a shame the way they do these lessons in such a large group. The experiments are shown to the whole group with a few volunteers. Then, they might try it in class, but most of the time, the classes never get to it. It almost defeats the purpose of the learning by doing that these lessons are built around.
The students learned about nouns today in their mini-lessons. They seemed to pick up on them faster than adjectives, and I still feel that it would have been easier to teach adjectives after nouns, but this is working out ok. There was a great activity on the Smartboard that gave a list of words and they needed to drag them into either a “nouns” or “not nouns” bin. The rest of the students gave a “thumbs up” if they thought it was a noun, and a “thumbs down” if they thought the word was not a noun. A new activity was also added to the “work on writing” center, which the students seem to enjoy. There are mini pre-made books and the students can write their own story in them, and illustrate the book as well. As they finish, they can put them in a bin to share with the class. This addition made a lot of students choose to work on writing, and we had 2 students share their books with the class. We noticed that the books, only 3 pages long (plus a cover) were probably too short for them, so we are going to run off pages and give them the ability to add more pages if they need to.
Pit went pretty well today. It was our second time co-teaching and it worked out even better, probably because the experiment we did was a little more complex. It involved balancing a triangle and an arch on a popsicle stick. We had a bunch of volunteers come up and try it, and I really felt like the students were getting the concept of counterweights and balance points. We used a scanned image of a worksheet with different scenarios on it to try out. It worked well to have the students give either thumbs up or thumbs down to let us know if they thought the shapes would balance. That works really well with such a large group of kids.
Math, on the other hand, was crazy. I was teaching trading ten ones to make a ten, and it was definitely a tough concept. The other student teacher taught the same lesson to her class today too and had the same issues, so that did make me feel a little bit better. I asked my CT if there was a better way to explain it and she basically told me that it really is a hard concept and that I explained it well, but we just need to review it more and keep reinforcing it and going over it. Because it was a tough concept, I felt that I was losing them a lot of the time. At the end, we played “around the world” with addition flash cards. They really enjoyed the game, but were getting silly. I told them a few times that it didn’t seem like they were shaped up enough to play. I gave quite a few time outs as well. It would work for a second every time, but then it dissolved again. My CT told me not to be afraid to just stop the game and have them sit down with their heads down at their desks if they can’t control themselves. I may need to use that strategy sometime.
The end of the day went quickly. My CT gave me her midterm evaluation of me that she is sending to my school and I was happy with what she wrote. I feel like I’m really learning a lot, so much more than I ever could have learned in regular classes about teaching.
The students learned about nouns today in their mini-lessons. They seemed to pick up on them faster than adjectives, and I still feel that it would have been easier to teach adjectives after nouns, but this is working out ok. There was a great activity on the Smartboard that gave a list of words and they needed to drag them into either a “nouns” or “not nouns” bin. The rest of the students gave a “thumbs up” if they thought it was a noun, and a “thumbs down” if they thought the word was not a noun. A new activity was also added to the “work on writing” center, which the students seem to enjoy. There are mini pre-made books and the students can write their own story in them, and illustrate the book as well. As they finish, they can put them in a bin to share with the class. This addition made a lot of students choose to work on writing, and we had 2 students share their books with the class. We noticed that the books, only 3 pages long (plus a cover) were probably too short for them, so we are going to run off pages and give them the ability to add more pages if they need to.
Pit went pretty well today. It was our second time co-teaching and it worked out even better, probably because the experiment we did was a little more complex. It involved balancing a triangle and an arch on a popsicle stick. We had a bunch of volunteers come up and try it, and I really felt like the students were getting the concept of counterweights and balance points. We used a scanned image of a worksheet with different scenarios on it to try out. It worked well to have the students give either thumbs up or thumbs down to let us know if they thought the shapes would balance. That works really well with such a large group of kids.
Math, on the other hand, was crazy. I was teaching trading ten ones to make a ten, and it was definitely a tough concept. The other student teacher taught the same lesson to her class today too and had the same issues, so that did make me feel a little bit better. I asked my CT if there was a better way to explain it and she basically told me that it really is a hard concept and that I explained it well, but we just need to review it more and keep reinforcing it and going over it. Because it was a tough concept, I felt that I was losing them a lot of the time. At the end, we played “around the world” with addition flash cards. They really enjoyed the game, but were getting silly. I told them a few times that it didn’t seem like they were shaped up enough to play. I gave quite a few time outs as well. It would work for a second every time, but then it dissolved again. My CT told me not to be afraid to just stop the game and have them sit down with their heads down at their desks if they can’t control themselves. I may need to use that strategy sometime.
The end of the day went quickly. My CT gave me her midterm evaluation of me that she is sending to my school and I was happy with what she wrote. I feel like I’m really learning a lot, so much more than I ever could have learned in regular classes about teaching.
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