Week 11: Conferences

Monday:

            One more week until Spring Break! This semester is seriously flying by, but I absolutely love this placement. It’s just sad to think in a few weeks I won’t be with them anymore. They all mean so much to me, but I am very excited to move on and move forward in my teaching career. A few of the teachers are trying to stay on top of the openings being listed online. They said they promise to tell me when they are listed on the district website!

            Today was my first time doing full time teaching. To be completely honest, it wasn’t that much different than how it has been. I just have to do all of the grading now, which is kind of a bummer! =) But other than that, I really don’t feel nervous about it. Andrea has made it very easy between each transition. Honestly, it’s hard to think that I went to schools for the past three years and just sat in there. If I were to go back in time, I would be bored out of my mind! Now that I have had the experience of being responsible for everything in the classroom I can’t imagine going back to that.

            Other than the first day of being full-time, it was a pretty easy day. You can tell that the students know they only have one week left as well. They were extra chatty today, but they continued doing their work so I didn’t really mind as much. And since we didn’t have class today, I got to make almost all of my copies for the week because I stayed after school! It was a nice day to catch up on everything. =)

Tuesday:

            Finally that stinking test on word problems is over! We started a word problem test on Friday. There are about 12 actual word problems on the test, and it took my class a very long time to finish. Most of them have trouble with reading the problems in the first place. So I decided to read the test to them because I wanted to test their math skills, not necessarily reading skills.

            This is a difficult concept to talk about, because I could see why people are against reading problems to them. If I weren’t there, would they still be able to do it? Honestly, the scores would have probably been a lot lower! However, I’m still okay with my decision because they showed me that they do have the thinking skills to figure it out once they know what it says.

            Another interesting thing that happened today was with my little penguin on the desk we call “Petey”. Every morning in the message we read together, there is always a picture of a penguin. He is kind of like our classroom mascot, I had no idea it would get so out of hand! There is a little girl in my class who has this newfound obsession with the little penguin on my desk. She did a partner project with him today! It was really cute and funny, but I had no idea this would happen.

Wednesday:

            Today we had a tornado drill! It seems like the school is really getting on top of the emergency procedures. Andrea told me they haven’t done a tornado drill in a few years either! I’m glad that they are going through and making it a priority. Things like that are very important for children to feel safe. A few of them were being silly during it, but at least they knew what to do. =)

            I had a few issues with classroom management today. However, thanks to our discussions we have in class I actually had a few ideas on how to keep them engaged. Whenever they started getting a little too chatty or out of control, I used a new attention grabber today. I would say very softly, “if you can hear me ______”. I had them do some silly things, but it made it easy to get everyone’s attention! Classmates would see everyone doing something and they would start paying attention again.

Thursday:

            Today was the first night of conferences! Wow this was a long day. Andrea and I only had five conferences today. We had one parent not show up; it was the parents of our new student. I wish they had called ahead, just because it would be nice to know if we had to stay in the room or if we could roam around a little. It’s hard to stay inside the classroom for almost 12 straight hours!

            Parent conferences are really interesting to me; parent communication in general is very interesting. I wonder how involved they really want to be and how closely the two should be tied together. Some of the teachers talk about how they don’t like it when the parents ask for advice on how to have their child do homework. They don’t believe it is their place to tell a child to do something at home because they are not the mothers. I completely understand why that would be frustrating; but at the same time I wonder how much communication there should be between the two. That is something interesting to think about for my future classroom.

            In honor of the conferences, everyone made a breakfast dish and we had a faculty breakfast. I absolutely love this staff. They’re such a close-knit group of people and they are so easy to feel comfortable around. Things like this are nice too because then I get to know them in a little bit of a different way. Andrea would be included in that! I basically felt like I was just spending time with a friend for a good portion of the time. However, we did plan the next few weeks with the other second grade teachers. So it’s nice that all of that is figured out already!

Friday:

            During the day, we pretty much didn’t have time for anything except math and writing! They got out an hour early, we had an assembly, and we had a special activity with a third grade classroom. (The third graders did state projects and we were able to go around and ask them about their states.) However, I did a mini lesson on acrostic poetry! It was a lot of fun, and they all created their own poem about spring. For “n”, a lot of them put “no school”; I must say they were very creative with this! I underestimated their creativity.

            While some of us teachers were waiting around, we found out that Howe will be audited the week we get back. There is something going on with their special education program. I’m not sure if they want students pulled out more often, or if they need to be more integrated in the regular classroom. Honestly, I don’t know where I stand on this issue. It’s not that I don’t want to put in the work to specialize lessons for students because I will do that. But when the student is gaining much from being in the regular classroom, I feel like there should be a change. For example, we have a student in our class with an IEP and he has a lot of issues in the classroom and can’t do any assignments on his own. I’m not sure if it’s an attention thing or a developmental problem; but in situations like that I think he would benefit more from being pulled more often than being integrated more.

In the end though, Spring Break is here! We even got out of conferences an hour early because no one had any more scheduled for the night. I’m very happy I was able to experience conferences though. It was a good experience, and now I see why we do this for an entire semester. This has given me a good idea of what to expect when I’m on my own. =)

Week 10

Monday:

    "Hallelujah, subtraction with regrouping is finally over with!" This was my thought in the morning, before we started working on word problems. My thought afterwards; "I wish subtraction with regrouping came back..." Word problems are difficult with this group of students for two reasons. First of all, they have difficulty reading. So, simply reading the word problems is hard enough for them. Second of all, I practically give them the answer; and they still look up at me with blank stares!

    Don't get me wrong, they started picking it up a little bit at the end. And to be fair it was the first day! However, I was still a little disappointed because I figured word problems would be much easier! We found a four-step plan online that makes figuring out the problem much easier! Hopefully as the days continue, they will improve with how to solve the problem. One thing that will be a difficulty that I can't really get rid of is the fact that they can't necesarily read the problems. That is one aspect of teaching that keeps resurfacing in this placement. All subjects connect; and if you really struggle in one (especially reading), the rest of the subjects may give you difficulty.

    Although this isn't with my placement, our class tonight has me thinking a lot about my future and how I want to integrate technology into my classroom. One problem with this is that there is literally no technology at my placement. It's amazing what you can do with an abundance of resources! Hopefully I can figure out a way to be a little bit more creative when it comes to integrating technology at my placement, because it really is an important aspect of school today.

Tuesday:

    Today seemed so long even though we had early dismissal! We had another SIPP day today; which is basically a teacher inservice day. However, we were able to work with another school in the district. We went up to Oak Crest Elementary to talk about the Common Core. The principals wanted a pamphlet about the Common Core to explain to the parents. Unfortunately a lot of the teachers don't know enough about the Common Core to even implement it into their own classroom. A lot of them were pointing out the fact that they need to first unpack it themselves before trying to explain it for parents. Honestly, it got a little awkward at times because the teachers were so upset; but they have a right to be. So we ended up spending the afternoon just talking about what the Common Core is. Hopefully they will have a pamphlet for the parents by next year!

    Other than the SIPP day, we had even more going on! It was a little girl's last day here. I'm not sure if she got adopted or if she is going back with her mother, but she is gone. I was sad to say goodbye to her, but I'm really hoping that she ends up in a better situation than she has been. Along with her leaving, the afternoon was interesting for its own reason.

    Andrea had a doctor's appointment, so we set it up that the principal would come check in every now and then to make sure things are going well. All that was left at the end of the day was a read aloud and packing up. However, since it was someone's last day, everyone wanted to make her a card! So packing up took about 20 minutes since everyone was making her a card and giving her their phone number. It was really cute, and I definitely wasn't angry by any means. I'm happy they were able to do that for her, and I really hope someone does stay in contact with her. (Mostly because I want to know how she's doing. =)

Wednesday:

    I feel like I'm just going through the motions sometimes while I'm here. Honestly, I need to start switching things up to keep them interested, and me excited to go to school. We do the same type of thing in Social Studies every day, a similar routine in math; I mean, I feel like the entire day is routine! I understand younger grades need that consistency, however I need to find a way to make little changes here and there. Because to be honest, it's driving me crazy! I like change, I like new things; so why not make my teaching reflect that?

    Although it is very routine, I feel like we had a little bit of a break through in math today! The students are getting much better at the word problems. They understand the steps and how to go about solving it. As I said on Monday, a lot of them have trouble reading. Since we included different steps, I think it makes it a lot easier to understand the problem and solve it! All of them did a fantastic job today, and I'm honestly kind of proud of them. They know that they are lower in math, and they all have no problem saying it. I need to try and instill more confidence in them; perhaps it would empower them more and give them motivation to try harder!

    I'm really falling in love with these kids, and it's kind of sad to think I only have about 8 weeks left with them, if that! I still don't know if I want to apply at this school or not. Even if I didn't get the job, I could sign up to be on their substitute list. However, I'm starting to think I have officially made a decision to not stay around here. I'm not sure where I will end up; but as i said before, I get sick of routine and I love change. I think a new country or new state to teach in would help refresh me a little bit. =)

Thursday:

            Today I finally realized something. One of the main reasons I feel like my lessons are kind of flopping lately is because I haven’t been putting in as much time as I did before with planning them! It’s unfortunate, but having that guide as you go along with the lesson really makes it that much better. Even though I don’t use it very often while teaching; actually planning out exactly what you want to say makes you so much more prepared than if you just know the topic.

            The past two weeks I have just been figuring out the topic and the main points that I want to discuss. So today I decided that for each actual lesson I teach, I’m going to still write out the sequence of learning activities. Although it won’t be as detailed as the actual lesson plans, it will definitely help with feeling more prepared! I need to make sure I don’t start getting too comfortable, because it affects a lot more people than just me now. When I wouldn’t put forth a lot of effort in school for homework, it only affected me. However, if I don’t put in enough effort in teaching; that could affect my entire class in understanding an important concept!

            I’m really hoping that I stick with this, because it’s very important to me that I become the best teacher possible. And if that means I have to continue writing out things I was so excited to get rid of; well then I guess I’ll just have to suck it up and do it! =)

Friday:

            So two main things I want to talk about and think about today. Next Monday is my first day full-time teaching; YIKES! I’m so nervous, but so excited! I’ve pretty much been full-time except reading, but still! Its a lot more pressure I feel like. The other point is about parents. Although this wasn’t directly in my classroom, it still definitely ties into school.

            I do after-school care at a neighboring district Tuesday-Friday now. I’ve noticed that a lot of the parents are kind of disappointing with their children. Some of them, when they come in they are asking a million questions about how their day was; and that’s great! But there are other parents that come in, angry at them because they’re frustrated they had to pick them up because it was an inconvenience to them. Or I’ve had the students who openly tell me that they do whatever they want at home, basically because they’re ignored. (Granted kids can blow things out of proportion, but I have seen the interactions; and its very accurate.)

            I just came to the realization today that these are going to be some of my students’ situations. They may have a neglecting family at home, where no one really cares. It’s ridiculously sad what some of these kids have to deal with. I just don’t know how I’m going to be able to focus on teaching them when I know how some of them are really just hurting deep down. Just a kind of random thought for the day… But other than that it was a good week! =)

             

Week 9

Wednesday:

            Woo hoo! No school on Tuesday! Even though I really liked the snow day, it was definitely hard coming back from a surprise four-day weekend! All day I felt completely out of it, and I’m sure it showed in my energy and in my teaching. I love snow days, don’t get me wrong! =) However, today seemed like such a long day and I’m very thankful that tomorrow is already Thursday. A lot of the things we had planned for the week seem like they will be pushed to next week because of the extra long weekend.

            Along with it being an oddly short week, we have a completely different schedule this week because of the ISAT testing. Fourth grade asked if we could switch specials with them; and since the teachers are very flexible and willing to help, we switched times. However that means for the rest of the week, all of the times we would normally do specific subjects has been changed.

            This was definitely a weird day back, and almost more exhausting than the days before! I’m hoping tomorrow will go a little bit more smoothly. I felt like I was running around all day, not knowing what exactly was going on! At least tomorrow I will know what to expect more than I did today.

Thursday:

            Today went MUCH better than yesterday; in more ways than just adjusting to the weird week and mixed up schedule. We have been working with subtraction with regrouping, and tomorrow all of the students will take a test on how well they understand and know the concept. It’s one of the common core assessments; and I have been worried that our low group would not be prepared. Today they, all of the sudden, were completely getting it! I have no idea how, or when this happened; but I’m so happy that all of that work has at least shown some progress!

            We also started a new unit in social studies, and every first day of a new unit I go over the vocabulary that we will need to know. So I was going through it like usual, and then all of the sudden the students started laughing at one of the vocabulary words. First of all, this class is the only second grade class that always laughs at but, duty, balls, etc. Andrea and I even asked the other teachers if they have this problem; nope, just us! So the vocabulary word today was “tutor”. I didn’t even think beforehand that they would find that funny, but they never cease to surprise me. It caught me so off guard that I kind of let out a little smile, because honestly it is a little funny that they are that entertained!

            Other than the tutor incident, the day went really well! I’m starting to get more comfortable as the “head teacher”. I have been doing everything except reading for the past two weeks. I feel like we may have rushed ahead a little too quickly, but I suppose that the more practice I have, the better off I will be!

Friday:

            Today seemed like a wasted day to me in some ways. We didn’t do our “Howe 2 Read” program because the aides were gone again. In math, we had the common assessment. We still did social studies, which went fine. And in writing, they are working on their autobiographies; so there isn’t much teaching to be done about that. We had an extra long recess, and then Friday free time. I’m not sure why I feel like it was so wasted, I guess it just seemed like we didn’t do anything in the afternoon.

            Today during social studies, I had one of my students correct me when I said something right. This student is the kind of know-it-all you would expect to have in every class. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love this girl and she is very bright! However, she calls out all of the time and is always certain that she is right in whatever she is saying. I’m not sure what to do about her. Andrea said that she always struggled with the same thing with her, which makes me feel a little bit better; but still a little frustrated!

            I have her, and then another little boy that is certain he is always right. However, he rarely shares information that is actually correct! I don’t want to correct him after sharing because I almost feel rude; but is it kind of my job to correct and teach him? I’m not really sure what to do with these two students, especially because I will be completely on my own in about two weeks. 

Week 8

Monday:

            I always love starting a new week! The class is always so excited, which brings a refreshing energy back to me as well. In math, we continued with double-digit subtraction with regrouping. There is one student in my class who I have referred to before that really surprised me today. He needs a lot of extra help and could be included in the special education program at another school; they are actually considering putting him in there next year.

            Anyways, today I couldn’t believe how well he was doing in math! I wanted to review on the board before having them begin their assignment. So I walked through a few of the problems with them, and he was answering almost every single one of my questions; correctly! Andrea was in as much shock as I was. It’s crazy how different each day can be with him. Some days you can basically give him the answer and he won’t know it, other days, like today, he is completely on the ball! It was definitely a refreshing way to start the week at school.

            Another thing I also wanted to reflect on was actually what happened at Trinity. Having the principal panel come to class was very helpful! But it has gotten me thinking on different places I want to teach and where I need to start applying. It’s crazy to think that we all graduate in a few months and will be on our own very soon; it’s exciting but scary. I’m just really hoping that a clear path will be made as to where I should go.

Tuesday:

            My eyes were definitely opened today. I was able to get a glimpse of so many different home lives that these children have. We read a nonfiction story about brothers and sisters for reading today. I didn’t think there would be so many connections and comments on what I would consider a boring story. All of the students had something to comment on or share about their own lives, and I’m very happy that they felt comfortable sharing this stuff with everyone.

            One student is in foster care and really connected with a child in the story that was adopted. A few other students only have one parent, or don’t live with a parent at all; and they had someone to connect with in the story. Some of the students have dealt with a lot in their own lives. For some reason, today, they felt like opening up.

            It’s crazy how a simple book like this can really make them become so involved in what they are reading! One student almost started crying because, as I shared last week, her and her sister are not getting along very well. I have a feeling that the older sister is blaming her for all of the court situations going on with their parents. She said she was sad that she didn’t feel like her sister was her best friend. (The sisters in the story considered themselves best friends.) We read this story one more time tomorrow, and I’m very excited to see how it goes!

            After school, it was fun seeing how much of a community this school really has. All of us were completely snowed in, and it took us WAY too long to get out of school and get our cars out of the snow. But it was a lot of fun working with them and shoveling other people out. We were all kind of goofing around, and everyone had such a different energy in them than I have ever seen. It was really nice to see that side of the school. =)

Wednesday:

            Today just seemed like the longest day ever! I’m not sure why, I feel like my teaching is becoming repetitive and boring. Once again, if I think it’s boring then I can’t imagine how the students are feeling! Yesterday we also had a very big snowstorm, and I’m wondering if it was just because I wanted a snow day. =) So many schools around us had one, and I was so disappointed waking up hearing that I had to go into work. Don’t get me wrong, once I got there I was happy to be there; but a break is always nice! I think I just get worn out too easily; I need to figure out a way around that! It never used to happen, so it’s kind of annoying. =)

            Going back to what I said before, I feel like I am becoming repetitive, predictable, and boring. Those are the exact opposite adjectives I would ever want to use to describe myself, but it’s how I feel right now. I need to find a way to make these lessons directed towards the students to keep them interested. That’s one thing that I find very difficult!

            I have finally settled in to teaching almost everything, and I’m completely fine with that. But now that I have that part down, I feel like I owe it to myself and my students to make these lessons more fit for all of us. I know my students pretty well, I know their interests, I know what kind of lessons they like; and I can do better at making these days a little less boring. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day!

Thursday:

            Today was the exact opposite of boring! It felt so busy that I was absolutely exhausted when I got home! I even took a nap, and I never take naps! The students for some reason were just absolutely crazy. They were very chatty all day; even Andrea was starting to say that she was exhausted at the end of the day. We had to constantly remind them to quiet down; and I almost felt like a nag at some points. They knew they were getting way too loud, but they just didn’t seem to care at all.

            It was kind of a strange day with the chatting, and then a few odd experiences with aids that were supposed to help in the classroom. We have this reading program called “Howe To Read”. This happens every day from 1:30-2:00. Once again, Andrea and I have the lowest level grouped kids in our classroom. We decided to make the most of this time and use help throughout the school. So during this time, I have a group of students, Andrea has a group, and then the art teacher along with an aid each have a group as well.

            It’s very nice to have different groups so that we can target the different students better. However, when these people don’t show up; we kind of get screwed over. The aid wasn’t in yesterday, and she wasn’t in once again today! So that would mean that 6 kids would go unattended during this time. Instead of doing guided reading, we ended up watching a reading rainbow video. I have definitely learned today that it’s hard to rely on people; but if a school can make have everyone aiming for a common goal, I feel like the school could have so many more possibilities.

Friday:

            Today was a fun day! Instead of teaching lessons today, Andrea and the other second grade teachers decided to go crazy for Dr. Seuss’ birthday! It was practically reading his books all day, and all of the kids loved it! However, I feel like I didn’t do anything; so I guess it’s kind of a lose-win type of situation.

            During the day we even had the principal read a Dr. Seuss book over the intercom. All of the children went and sat on the carpet as Andrea turned the pages so they could listen to the story while looking at the pictures. It was kind of a cool moment, it really felt like the school was a very tight-knit community. Along with the reading, there were a few activities with Dr. Seuss; one of them involved drawing a “butter-ma-plane”.

            These students have a hard enough time being creative. This project required them to draw what they believed a butter-ma-plane to look like. A few of the students did a nice job with it, but there is one student that hardly speaks any English. She was so confused as to what a “butter-ma-plane” was, and her face was priceless when we tried explaining it to her. So Andrea had another student who spoke Spanish go explain the project to her. Finally she understood that she could make up anything she wanted. It was very cool to see this kind of interaction and help between the students. =) And I was very happy that the little girl didn’t look as stressed anymore!

Classroom Confidential:

            We do A LOT of writing and journaling in our classroom, so this was actually a very practical and helpful chapter! I thought the writer’s hats idea is a very cute and fun way to get them more excited about writing. They would probably love it even more because we have to constantly tell them that there are no hats allowed in school. The empty your head strategy would also be a really good one for them to start learning how to write creatively.  My students have a hard time coming up with strange stories on their own. Perhaps if they were given one topic and had to write down every word that came along with that topic it would help them write a good story.

            Skinny to steroids is a perfectly fitting activity with this classroom. We just learned about adjectives, and we are trying to get them to write more creatively and descriptively. By taking a simple sentence and adding adjectives to it, I could definitely see them benefiting from this activity. There are a lot of good ideas in this chapter, some not being as fitting to my second graders as others; but all in all, there are definitely some ideas I may try stealing for a future lesson. =)