Week 4

Monday:

Today was actually a lot of fun with Andrea and the students! I know that teaching will always be fun, but I feel like there are just some days that go above and beyond fun! First of all, I showed up to school with a book about penguins on my desk! It’s funny that she already knows how obsessed I am with penguins, but I was really excited about it. We got a lot accomplished today, but the students and us enjoyed doing all of it. Andrea even led the students in a short session of yoga in the afternoon.

Especially for me, I think it’s so important to have fun while teaching. Even I get bored easily, so I can definitely understand my students in that way; and I have tried really hard to show them how much I enjoy learning and how fun it is! For example, we have Daily Five guided reading every day. Some session I don’t have a group, so I do what every other student does and I read. I absolutely love children books, and sometimes I even laugh aloud to myself while reading them. Usually the students will see me smiling or laughing to myself while reading, and then I’ll see them go and grab the book right after I put it back. Then I usually grab a nonfiction book about penguins, which they’ll grab once I put it back too. It’s really cute, but it just goes to show that if a teacher is really into something, the students will be too!

I started teaching social studies today and introduced the new unit: Services in a Community. It wasn’t anything special. I introduced the new vocabulary for the unit, then asked what jobs they could think of on their own and had them write down what they want to be when they’re older. I’m going to try my best throughout the semester to show them what we are talking about is important for them to learn; so I really want to connect it to real life as much as possible. It’s the same with adults and children, why should we learn something if it doesn’t apply to us? It was a good introduction day. Even though the students don’t seem too excited about social studies now, I hope I can get them more excited as the week goes on!

Tuesday:

            I feel like I learned a lot today, especially after reviewing what happened. First of all, I continued social studies. Once again, the lesson wasn’t very exciting; even I started getting a little bored! All we did was read part of the chapter, then fill out a graphic organizer together. The students seemed bored because, quite honestly, it was a little boring. I didn’t bring much life to it and could have prepared that better. Tomorrow will be a very similar lesson and Andrea gave me a few helpful tips. First of all, while asking questions I will award points to tables for participation. (The points don’t really mean anything, but for some reason when points are involved they all get more excited!) I will also try and find some kind of song that can go along with services in a community; they love music! =)

            The other big part of the day was the planning period where the second grade teachers reevaluated the effectiveness of “Gumball Math”. Basically, “Gumball Math” happens every day once the students return from lunch. It is a list of 40 addition problems that they try to finish in a minute. It takes up a lot of time because we grade it altogether in class. The problem with grading it in class is that the students would grade their own worksheet, and we found out a few of them were actually cheating while grading. A lot of the students were actually just counting how many they had finished, and not just the ones they had correct.

            After meeting and talking about this for a while, they decided that they would try to research some more before making a decision. One thing we pointed out was that all of us had our addition facts memorized. So now they are trying to find a way to have the students memorize the facts again, rather than just knowing the strategy of addition.

Wednesday:

            Today was the third day of social studies. I did take Andrea’s advice and started doing participation points for the students who were answering questions. This got all of them a lot more involved and interested while we were filling out our graphic organizer together. The table that had the most points was able to line up for lunch first. I also found a song online about people’s jobs and what they do. They reacted to this very positively as well; I didn’t realize how much they did like songs! I’m glad she gave me all of those tips and that I listened to her; it made the lesson go a little smoother.

            Update on “Gumball Math”, Andrea decided she was absolutely finished with it and introduced “Math Blasters” today. After looking through the worksheets for this, I feel that it will be much more beneficial to the students than “Gumball Math” was. One of the very first things I loved about it was that the students did not grade their own work, the teachers do! Along with that, the students work at their own pace.

            There is a level system, a-z, which the students need to work through. First they take a test to see how many numbers they can write within one minute so that they can set their goal. If they can write 25 in a minute, then their goal will be 25 to pass level a. However, if they can write 40 in a minute, their goal is 40 in order to pass the level. It is much more individualized to help challenge the students. I’m excited to see an entire new system in place so I can even compare. So far, I really like the concept of “Math Blasters” more than I liked “Gumball Math”.

Thursday:

            Unfortunately we had an assembly during social studies, so I was unable to teach today. The one thing that stood out to me today that I would like to focus on is discipline for students. I find this aspect very difficult right now, because I don’t feel that it is my place to be disciplining someone else’s student! I feel so strange doing it because I believe I would be uneasy about someone else disciplining my students!

            One thing we have is a “chatterbox”. Each student has their name with three red slips behind it. If a teacher says “chatterbox”, they have to take one of those red slips and put it in a box. If they have all three gone, then they have to move their clip from “ready to learn” to “warning”. A note doesn’t go home or anything, but their behavior for the day is written in their assignment notebook every day. I really think this is an effective strategy to keep students and parents responsible.

            Today I finally used the “chatterbox” with a few of the students. Whenever Andrea would leave, it seemed that they would get the idea they were free to talk. My problem is, I don’t have a problem with some quiet conversations if I see that they are still working; however, this was not quiet. They were all getting too loud, so I gained their attention and told them if they aren’t doing what they are supposed to be doing they will have to move a chatterbox slip. I pointed out that I don’t mind conversations as long as they’re not distracting others or yourself from getting work done.

            After I talked to them, there were still a few students with their pencil down and they were clearly just talking to one another. So I told them to go take a chatterbox slip and put it in the box. After I did that to two students, its as if they all realized that I am a teacher now too and they all quieted down. I wasn’t trying to scare them all, but it seems like I may have gained a little respect from them! I’m very happy about that outcome. =)

Friday:

            Friday’s are always jumbled days it seems like. I feel that we only have this day to catch up on things we have fallen behind on; and today we didn’t have much to catch up on! We did some activities for Groundhog’s Day, and we continued with our social studies unit.

            Today I brought in a lot of books, from the public library, about different types of jobs. I taught a very simple lesson on research and taking notes. Plagiarism was introduced today, because I wanted them to get a very basic understanding of what that meant. I was honestly surprised at how well they understood and how well they did research! Andrea told me they don’t do anything with research in first grade, but her second graders did an excellent job of finding information about their dream job. They actually were quite into the whole concept of researching, so we continued the lesson up until lunch! I was very happy with how well it went, and I will keep in mind how capable second graders are when I start teaching.

            Andrea was able to be a part of a meeting about reading today as well. The school is reevaluating the way that the school teaches reading now too. It’s kind of crazy how quickly changes can come at any time. They are now considering switching for reading as well, and put ability levels together. I am interested to see how this works out, because I feel that whoever gets the low level group for reading is going to have a lot of work cut out for them! I have seen just the ability levels in our own classroom, and there are students who still struggle knowing how to read. It will be a lot of work for one teacher, but perhaps there will be other aides in there assisting.

Classroom Confidential – Chapter 3

            Once again, I felt that this chapter was very applicable to us now. It is very hard to get students to want to do the tasks you are setting before them. I never thought that the students acting up are either trying to seek pleasure, or avoid pain. I really like that thought because, as she said, one the surface it may not be so evident that is what is happening. Sometimes students hold it deeper than that, and camouflage it from us.

            The eight strategies to help students succeed is also a great way to help our students. I have a few students who really struggle with focusing on writing. Perhaps next time we are required to do an assignment where they need to write down three sentences, I could give them more options other than just writing. I know its not much freedom, but I feel that this is something I need to learn more through experience and see how it will work for me, rather than just taking the strategy straight from the book. I have found that doesn’t always work so well and that it’s important to think about it before implementing a new strategy in the classroom.