Two Hour Delay

Two hour delay! Two hour delay!  Well, for me and the other teachers, it’s actually a one-hour delay.  Either way, an extra hour of sleep is pretty nice.  Plus, it makes it a short day too!  I am here this morning trying to figure out what to do for a poetry lesson.  I looked in the students’ poetry folders to find the next poem and found one about a Birthday Day. It sounds cute and there is a website on the BBC that goes through the whole lesson with them.  My Cooperating Teacher sent me the website, so I think I am all set.  I just wrote up a quick lesson plan and I think I am all prepared for next week now.

I realized this morning that in my math lesson plan that I wrote for teaching “Doubles plus one” I wrote that after the game I planned, I also planned for them to come back up to the Smartboard and do an activity.  I realized that I never actually designed an activity for this on Smart Notebook.  I did, however, make copies of a worksheet for them to do, so I think I’ll be using those instead.  I have no idea what Smartboard activity I was thinking of, but while they are working on their worksheets, I may take a look on the computer and see if I can find one online to play with them afterwards.  We’ll see how that works.  I do wish I could access the internet on my laptop here because then I’d be able to do that now before the kids get here.

A little later this morning: I decided I did want to have a Smartboard activity to use in case the class finishes the worksheets early and just as a follow-up activity.  I think I will have them do only side 1 of their worksheet and then do the Smartboard activity.  Since I can’t get onto the Internet, I figured out how to create a quiz using the Smart Notebook software.  It’s actually pretty cool and I think it’ll work well.  I’m wondering if I should record myself doing my lesson today just to have as one choice to submit – I need to submit one video taped lesson (or audio recorded lesson) at some point.  If I can figure out a simple way to do this, I may.

Now we are planning for next week and my Cooperating Teacher will be out on Thursday, so she is writing up plans for a substitute.  There is also an assembly that day, so it sounds like it will be pretty crazy.  I will teach math and handwriting and also word work for the first time, so that will be interesting.  I think I still need some clarification of what word work entails, so I will ask about that soon.  My Cooperating Teacher explained it to me and I know the students know how it works too, so it should go ok.

We just had the kids in for about 15 minutes.  We did morning meeting and then it was time for recess and then lunch!  It’s a pretty strange day.  When they get back, it should be a little more normal.  They’ll have a spelling test and then pit and math and then it should be time for specials (art today) and dismissal!  I think it’ll go fast.  I must admit, I was kind of hoping for a snow day today so I could do a little more planning and other chores around the house that I’ve been putting off, but it’s also good to get a day in.  I don’t know how many extra days we have built into our schedule before we need to make up days.  We have some but my university doesn’t tell us how many.  So if we can get the day in, it’s good news in the long run.

Afternoon:  I did my next math lesson – doubles plus one.  It went well, but the class was chatty again.  I got some great pointers from my cooperating teacher.  She said she thought my pacing was great and that I seem to have a really good sense of when to move on to the next thing.  I was doing a lesson on adding “doubles plus one” and we had a cool dice game to play with it.  They take turns rolling a die and doubling the number then add one.  Then they mark their square with a crayon.  They seemed to understand pretty well when I explained it but when I sent them back to their seats it seemed to turn into chaos.  I tried to get their attention using “bum buh de bum bum” but they didn’t respond.  I thought I needed to be louder so I clapped and they clapped back.  I did a few clapping patterns that they repeated and finally I had their attention.  I asked for a show of hands to see who knew how to play the game.  Only a few raised their hands.  I asked one of them to tell me what would happen if I rolled a two and he explained it correctly.  I repeated this and the class seemed to get it.  I told them to try again.  They did a pretty good job and the rest of the lesson went pretty smoothly.  The tips my cooperating teacher gave me were good though.  Instructing them to put their hands on their head and then praising one of the students that does it helps because with everyone’s hands on their heads, they can’t continue working when they should be listening.  The other helpful suggestion was to have the pictures we used to remember doubles up in the front of the room so they could refer to it.  That would have been helpful throughout the game and lesson and I wish I had thought of that beforehand.  I even realized during the lesson how helpful that would have been.  That is definitely something I will remember for next time. 

Crazy Thursday

I am going to do some thinking on my feet today.  I was scheduled to do only one handwriting lesson this morning, but it sounds like we are also going to try to squeeze in a quick math review and test lesson that I have been preparing for tomorrow. 

I am planning on using the handwriting video for the letter K at www.netrover.com/~kingskid/Printing_Alphabet/Printingl.htm to illustrate how to write a k.  My Cooperating Teacher has been using these videos but I find the voices really irritating and I’d like to find a new website or tool to use.  Any suggestions?

During Daily 5 today, one of the compound word games on the Internet didn’t work.  Also the file that my Cooperating Teacher uses for students to choose their centers each day became corrupt and wouldn’t open.  I thought it was good how she quickly decided to let the students choose their centers.  She has been working towards them making independent decisions anyway, though she will continue to watch which centers they choose and ask them to switch to different centers if they continue to choose the same ones over and over.  I am also keeping an eye on their choices.  When one student chose “read to buddy” we realized that there was no simple way of having them know who else wanted to do read to buddy.  My Cooperating Teache quickly realized that we needed a meeting place for anyone who chooses this center.  This worked out really well and it seemed like a lot of kids then decided to do “read to buddy.”

Wow, I have a headache.  Writing and math today were pretty tough.  I think it’s definitely harder to teach lessons at the end of the day when the class is starting to get tired and antsy.  The lessons went pretty well and I got some good feedback from my Cooperating Teacher.  I find that the hardest thing for me is transitioning still – getting them settled in between lessons.  For math today, I transitioned right from snack and I forgot to tell them to get their white boards that they needed for my lesson.  I decided to forget the white boards and do it without them.  It worked ok but it threw me off a little.  Instead of working in pairs with the white boards I had them whisper to the person next to them, all say the answer out loud, etc, varying the types of responses.  Then I had them take the tests back to their desks and set up their offices so that my Cooperating Teacher could give the test.  I had told them to start the test, not realizing that my Cooperating Teacher usually goes through each question individually.  Next time I will remember that and know what to instruct them to do when they are getting ready for a test.  Overall the lessons went well, I think I just need to build up my own stamina and ability to transition, manage behavior, and keep lessons running well.  It’s a lot to juggle, but I’m getting better at it (I hope!)

1st Day Back

Morning: Well today is our first day back to school in 5 days.  We had an in-service day last Friday, then, Monday was MLK day, and yesterday was a snow day!  Lots of kids were out sick last week, so they are returning to school for the first time in a while!  I was sick last week too.  I’m still feeling it, but I’m really glad to have my voice back.

Today is my first observation.  My University Supervisor will arrive at 12:30 today to observe a math lesson.  We usually don’t start math until 1:30, so we had to change our schedule around a bit to accommodate his schedule, so I’m hoping that won’t mess the kids up at all.  It’s been so long since they’ve been here that I’m hoping it won’t matter.  I am teaching a math lesson on adding doubles.  I plan to do a share in our class’s morning meeting to tell them that we will have a visitor after lunch and let them know why he will be here.  I hope that will help them to be more well-behaved when I am teaching.

This morning, I worked with students who were absent last week to make up tests that they missed.  I felt really comfortable giving the tests and they all did very well.  It was 2 spelling tests and a mad minute math quiz.  I also got to watch my Cooperating Teacher do a DRA with one student, to test his reading level.  It was interesting to see it in action.  She asked about the pictures, then did a running record for accuracy and then asked them to retell for comprehension.  I had heard about these techniques but hadn’t gotten to see them in action yet.  The attention getting techniques my cooperating teacher uses are really useful for when the class is too chatty or not on task.  A simple phrase or ring of the bell will make them pay attention and then she can give instructions.

I took over to have the class do their jobs and go out to recess.  I was confused about which jobs needed to be done, so they kids started getting loud trying to explain to me.  The cooperating teacher stepped in to quiet them down, so that was helpful.  It shows the importance of knowing what needs to be done next to maintain control of the classroom.

Afternoon/First Observation:

My first observation went well and I was really impressed with how well behaved my class was.  They are a really great class and my lesson went smoothly despite one small error in a matching game.  I used the website superteachertools.com to generate random pairs.  My teacher has done this is the past so our class list was already saved to the website.  It is a great way to generate groups of 2, 3, or 4.  There are no hurt feelings or arguments about the pairs.  I also used a Smartboard game where students were given the opportunity to be “teacher” and sit in the teacher’s chair and call friends to the board to select the answers to problems.  It ran very well – they were quiet and on task.  They had done similar activities before so they knew what was expected of them.

I found a mistake in the matching game we did in pairs.  The picture of eggs was supposed to have a dozen eggs, but it only had 8 in the picture.  I told them in groups to pretend that it was a real carton of eggs with 8 eggs on each side.  When I brought the class back together, I asked who noticed what the mistake was in the game.  I think bring the mistake out in the open rather than trying to hide it or pretend it wasn’t there was helpful. 

My supervisor really liked the pacing of my lesson and that there was never a time when the kids were idle or wondering what to do and that the class knew and followed their rules and instructions so well.  There were always activities for when the kids finished one thing, and no one was ever wandering around or off task.

Reflection on First Observed Lesson:

I am really relieved to have my first observation under my belt and over with.  I was more nervous than I thought I’d be last night, though today I was pretty calm, and I felt ready.  My supervisor did notice that I seemed a little tense at first, but he understood that, especially for a first observation. 

Overall, I feel the lesson worked really well.  Every student got all of the problems correct on both the worksheet and in the matching game.  The class was well-behaved and I also felt that the pace of the lesson felt good.  We weren’t rushing, but we got everything in and kept it moving so that nothing became stale or boring and the kids didn’t start getting antsy.  I am looking forward to doing more in front of the class and getting more comfortable with it.  The most difficult thing for me is starting and ending a lesson.  I haven’t been sure about what comes next when I finish my part, so my transitions are not the best.  I think I will improve on that as I teach more, and especially as I teach more than one lesson at a time, because I will then have a plan for the next part and can go right into it rather than make sure that my cooperating teacher is ready to continue.  I only teach one lesson tomorrow but them it will go up from there.  

Hi!

Hello there!  This is my first blog post in a very long time and I’m hoping I can still do a good job at it.  I’m Lauren and I am currently student teaching in a 1^st grade classroom in Bucks County, PA.  I am in graduate school, career-changing from a business/pharmaceutical background.  I have previously worked in marketing research for the pharma industry, as a manager of a local independent bookshop, and as an assistant at a pharmaceutical clinical research imaging core lab.  Teaching has always been my passion, and I am finally returning to the career path I was on back in 2001-2003 when I first began my undergraduate career.

I began student teaching just two weeks ago, and I am already overwhelmed with the amount or work and preparation that goes into each day.  I was aware that student teaching was a full-time job and that it is a lot of work, but I don’t think I quite grasped how much there is to do.  I have gotten quicker at writing out lesson plans, though, and learned in a recent online class that I do not have to write long-form lesson plans for each and every lesson I do – only those that will be observed or video taped.  I think that will help a great deal.

So this blog is really to gather my thoughts, generate discussion among teachers, and share resources and ideas that I have found to be helpful along the way.  I have a journal writing requirement, so I think that blogging will work alongside my journaling requirement.  I can use portions of the blog in my journals and vice versa.  I look forward to sharing my experiences!