A Blank Canvas

Here are some before and after photos of my classroom:

Before: Front of Room

Before: Desks and Cupboards

Before: Cubbies

Before: West Wall

After: Northwest Corner

After: Cubbie Wall

I was sure I had more pictures, but I cannot find them right now. The room is just about to go through some changes for the new quarter so I will post after that.

Answered Prayer

This morning will be the third day teaching first and second grade. This summer God answered my eight year long prayer and brought me to the school I have wanted to teach at for so long. Thus far it has been exactly as I imagined it would be. I have a small class of 15 students and they are the best students a teacher could ask for. Sure they spill glue, pencil, pencil shavings, markers and books, but they are so cute when it happens.
And so it begins…

An End and A Beginning

Today is the last day of school, I can hardly believe it. This morning as my students came in I had them get comfortable on the floor and I read them “Oh The Places You’ll Go.”

I was fighting back tears and so were many of my students. I have learned so much from this class and I pray that they have learned from me.

I started this blog as a requirement of my certification program and thus far it has had a fairly formal tone. My intent is that I would use it from this point on to share my insights about being a new teacher and recent graduate.

I am hoping very soon to begin sharing some photos of projects my class has done this year and other lesson ideas that I have found valuable.

P: Understanding Teaching as a profession

Prof Development This professional development plan meets P1: Informed by professional responsiilities and policies

Final Reflection This is the final reflection of my 6 month teaching internship P2: Enhanced by reflective, collaborative, professional growth-centered practice

T: Knowledge of teaching

Poetry Unit This poetry unit meets T2: Intentionally planned

reading_mini_lesson[1] This lesson meets T3: Influenced by multiple instructional strategies

L: Knowledge of Learners and Their Development in Social Contexts

Intervention_Plan This reading plan meets L1: Learner centered

Classroom_Management[1] The management plan meets L3: Family/neighborhood centered

S: Subject Matter and Curriculum Goals

I have attached three lessons that meet the criteria for standard S. Math_Showcase_Multicultural[1][1] This math lesson meets S1: Content Driven

Diversity_Unit_Plan[1] This Art unit plan meets S2: Aligned with curriculum standards and outcomes.

Describing Words Lesson This Science lesson meets S3: Integrated across content areas.

Intervention Plan

Intervention_Plan

The attached plan was written for a fifth grade boy. He was idetified as a struggling reader after a formal reading assessment.

Running

While I do enjoy sports I am not necessarily the exercising type 🙂 Running is sort of a hobby at my school. Every Wednesday at recess the students can participate in Cheetah Club and earn laps toward charms on a necklace for every 25 laps and a foot displayed in the gym for every 100 laps. When I can I get out an walk laps with some of the girls. It is so much fun, we usually end up talking about Twilight (ha!) or what it would be like to be a leaf. Today in PE I joined my class in running the mile. Almost everyone one of them beat their time from the fall. It was so fun to watch them encourage one another and to try to keep pace with me and my mentor teacher. While the focus was on the students I was still very excited about my time of 10:30. If you are a student teacher reading this, get out and have some fun with your class, they will gain a lot of respect for you when you are out busting a lung with them.

When you see yourself…

With each day I cannot help but see a little of myself in each of my students. When they talk I recall how important I thought my words were. When they are off task I remember how unmotivated I was. When they succeed I remember how much praise meant to me. When I see any one of them sinking below their potential I can’t help but want to scream at them not to waist their gifts and talents. In some ways I believe that when I see a little of myself in them it helps me to have empathy toward them. On the other hand I need to be seeing more of my past teachers in myself. I realized yesterday that I have been resting on being a student right along with my students. I can’t help, but want to be their ally and friend. What I have to remember is that what they really need right now is a teacher, mentor, guide and support.

George Washington once said, “He who makes excuses is seldom good for anything else.” It is time that I stop letting my students make excuses and truly hold them to the high standard they are capable of exceeding.

Respect

This week has caused me to seriously consider whether students in the fourth and fifth grade have any concept of respect. I use the word all the time towards them and often hear them using it, but I am not sure they understand. I long for them to be individuals who even when they disagree with something will have some self-control and show respect to others.
I am struggling so much with my management style. I am so aware that I lack consistency, but I long for a method that works. I feel foolish when I stand and wait for them to stop talking, but I know that raining my voice is completely ineffective. At many of our class meeting my students have made it clear that they do not want to keep pulling cards because they see it as futile, but they have no ideas about what will cause their obedience.
I am very aware that 98% of the chaos in the classroom is my problem, but I wish that my students would have enough respect for me and themselves to take responsibility for their 2%.

Adorable!

This morning I got the news that one of my students is going to be moving away. I was very sad to hear about this. When he came in he had an apple for me. I almost cried! I know it is probably not the sort of thing to cry about, but a gesture like that from a 4th grade boy is a big deal to me.

The Joys of Science

Generally on Friday’s (this week Thursday) I get to teach science all day. In the morning I teach my class, then in the afternoon I teach another 4th grade class. Today was maybe my 5th or 6th time teaching the full science day by myself, each time presents new challenges.
It seems that I am starting to get some regular procedures figured out. For example, most of the students are now able to remember that when I am talking they should be listening, without talking and with nothing in their hands. Today my greatest struggle was with understanding. In my mind it is a very simple concept that a battery is an electricity source and a light bulb is an electricity receiver, but in my students mind this was a tough concept. By the afternoon I had wised up and discovered that food was the answer! By explaining to them that they are like the bulb and food is like the battery I began to gain some ground. Now if only I were proficient in multiple languages I could really teach some science.
I can rest well tonight knowing that all my students went home to tell their families “I made a motor run today!!!”

Student Update

WooHoo! Yesterday I wrote about making a certain student cry. Today I am happy to report that he came in grinning ear to ear. He remembered all of his homework for today and found his folder which had been missing for weeks. I was so proud of him I waved his homework all around and his class clapped for him. It was a beautiful moment.

On a similar note I have been challenging my students to remember to turn their homework in and on Monday 60% was turned in and today 85% has been turned in! I am so proud of my class!

Small Victory

Today, as with so many days in my intern experience, had both high and low points. I think I shall begin with the low…causing one of my students to cry. I have tried to be patient about the fact that he does not turn in his homework. I have tried to be understanding of his home situation. Today I had to be straight with him and talk about how serious it is that he get some of his work turned in. It broke my heart to see his eyes well up with tears as he avoided my eye contact. I know that if I can in anyway impress upon him the importance of deadlines and responsibility it will benefit him in the, but for today I can’t help but feel like I have crushed his spirits a bit. I pray that I can be an encouragement to him in the coming weeks.

So..my small victory for the day. I have recently been given the challenge of planning a writing unit, a challenge that terrified me a bit. Yesterday when I introduced the unit and had the students do a small sample and self assessment they seemed less than  thrilled about writing. Today I introduced a creative and fun way to come up with ideas for their stories and they loved it! They were enthusiastic and I hardly could believe all the hands in the air as they impatiently waited to be asked to add to the class discussion. I realized quickly that as I am excited about a task they too will follow. I still have much planning and learning to do about how to teach writing, but I feel that today was a wonderful start!

Weekly Reflection

This week has been very eventful. Wednesday, I came in pretty sure I was going to fall flat on my face with the guided reading groups. When I got to school I discovered that my plan time was going to be spent subbing for another teacher and that I needed to change the math lesson I had planned. The good is the subbing went well, my math lesson was better than the one I originally planned and the guided reading went smoothly. Thursday was a weird day because we did science and had a sub half the day. She was great so I mostly just helped her with management and clarified the science lesson when she or the students got a bit confused. On Friday it was a half day for staff development. It was a little weird to sit in with the 4th grade teachers and have them talk about wheat they were doing for reading and keep my mouth shut because I have been so involved in planning it. I am trying to remember my place as an intern even when I feel sometimes like just another member of the staff. Leaving for the weekend I felt overwhelmed again because I am planning or things that will happen when I am not there and I don’t feel comfortable with that, but it isn’t that big of a deal.

Weekly Reflection

This week was a very eventful week in the world of student teaching. I taught my first two lessons. They were small, just a math group of three to four students. The first day was a bit of a last minute planned lesson. I tried to emulate what Keith does which is usually just to get out some manipulatives and work with multiplication facts. This strategy did not work well for me because I needed a bit more structure. It was also apparent that the questions I was asking of the students were not provoking good thinking. That afternoon Mr.Linington and I looked into what resources the math curriculum had that might be helpful. The next day when I taught math again I had prepared a lesson plan that aligned with what the students would be working on in math. I was able to change my questions and plan when the students were working at a faster pace than I expected. It was clear that good planning and good questions had made a significant difference. Friday was an excellent day! Mr. L and I have kind of been teaming up on the science each week and working together well. This week our planning time was shortened so we split up the responsibility of preparing for science. He got the vocabulary ready and I worked on building an example of the leg and thumb that the students would be building. We decided that when it came time for instruction he would go over the terms and principles and I would lead the construction aspects. Without directly planning for it, it became clear that we were team teaching the lesson. The students asked both of us questions and we transitioned well between each of us being at the head of the instruction. Friday’s are a good time for us to do this because we get to teach the same lesson twice. I think we both agreed that we would like to keep the team teaching model, or something similar going with our science lessons.

Weekly Reflection

This week was my first full three day week. It has been tiring. During silent reading time I began doing some conferencing with the students. I was really nervous because I didn’t know to ask the, but I calmed down a bit and reflected on what I know about assessment and I think I have been gathering some helpful information. On Thursday Keith was gone for half the day so I got to work with a sub. I was given the responsibility for the end of the day tasks. The students had to remind me of a few things, but for the most part it went well. One student this week has been giving me some real attitude, it feels as though she is testing me. I had to ask her to pull a card, which she was not happy with. I had a little chat with her in the lunch line and encouraged her to make the choice her self to improve her behavior. It appeared to have some influence on her. Friday was a real test of my acting skills. We did some really icky science things, but I put on a brave face and tried to get the students excited. Next week I am supposed to lead my first math group, and I am very anxious.

Weekly Reflection

This week I was only at the elementary one day because of a science field trip with the university. Wednesday mornings are staff meetings and I was able to attend. I was very surprised at how well the meeting went. I was impressed at how respectful the staff was of each others comments. the principal had clear goals for the meeting and kept things on task. Although this was my first official day, it wasn’t the first time I had been to observe the class. I got to pick the students up from recess for the first time by myself. I had a hard time getting a few of the boys to keep up with the line and stop talking. After I got back Keith and I talked about some strategies I could use and he gave me permission to ask students to “pull a card” if they are misbehaving. Reflecting not only on this week but the times I have come in since the beginning of the year, I think things are going well. I think I have been asking a lot of good questions and gathering good information. I think I could do better at interacting with the students on an academic level rather than just social.

Welcome

Welcome to my blog! This will be a place for me to post regular reflections about my student teaching experience. Also here you will find attached assignments and lesson plans that fufill the requirements to receive my certificate. I hope you will enjoy reading little tid bits from my time with a wonderful group of 4th and 5th grade students!