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. =)