Week Seven

02.27.12

Today was a great Monday. At first, I woke up and was not feeling today at all. Really dreading it actually and for no reason besides that I wanted to keep sleeping. But once I got to school things turned around. I’m feeling confident taking over the Iditarod unit we started today. Mary led part of the lesson and then I took over the research part. It felt good. It felt really good to be teaching a unit because you can pull SO much in and move where the students want to go. Time flew by this morning. In the afternoon we had math group. We did not progress in the lesson because our review went so poorly. Spiral review is great and I have learned to love it after seeing it in action. So it was more factor work in math. Hopefully, fingers crossed, we can move on to more  equivalent fractions tomorrow.

Let’s see… I noticed today that Mary color codes different worksheets within our small group for reading. We are reviewing grammar and writing this week. Each day is a different color. Also, we will be using the CPS clicker system to check for understanding. It is a good way to check and save paper, as well spark student interest with technology. Great!

Tomorrow should be an exciting day. I’m ready for my observation and really excited about teaching this unit. I can hardly wait until we are done with CRT and start the Montana/history unit.

02.28.12

Successful day today, and it was jam packed with learning, whew. Leading our small reading group is so much fun now that we are reading a book and not practicing CRT constructed response. We continued to read our non-fiction book about wolves and practice summarizing the main idea and details. The students really dug having science in a lesson (finally) and we had some really good discussions about wolves, Montana, and their interaction. SO much fun! Mary took over math and I assisted. These fractions are difficult for students to grasp. It is interesting to see students who usually thrive and surpass the group really struggle; they are not use to having to work at math and lack the coping strategies that most other students have. It is hard to watch them get so frustrated but it also shows that these students need to be pushed more so they have more disequilibrium to work through.

In the afternoon I taught the lesson on our musher trading cards using netbooks in the class. Things went well in my mind. There were a few fumbles but you learn from you mistakes and the next time will be that much better. I felt the management and direct instruction was good. My hook however, could have been stronger. I did not even think to bring out real trading cards to show to the students. I assumed, well, not even assumed, I just didn’t think to show an example of a real trading card. Once Mary found some in her desk the students were so much more engaged. I’ll be tucking that idea away for next time.

After meeting with Brenda today my professional portfolio seems a bit less daunting so I tacked a small part of that this evening. By small I mean I set up a blog and added a title. But hey, it’s a start. I also collected all the paperwork needed for subbing and started filling that out as well.

I started feeling lousy after school so I am taking it easy tonight. If feels extremely good to be halfway through my student teaching experience. Things are really clicking and falling into place this week. It feels really good to be productive, know the end of CRT is in sight, and to start taking over more of the classroom instruction. Tomorrow I will be teaching everything except math. Mary and I discussed my hesitation with math and decided on a plan to start after CRT. She explained that right now things are so unorganized and on the fly that it would be hard for me to take over at this time. Whew. She teaches math so gracefully that it is intimidating but I am hopeful and excited to have a plan in action for after CRT.

Tonight I will sleep well.

02.29.12

After yesterday I flaked out on journaling. You win some and lose some.

03.01.12

Gearing up for CRT. Mr. B came in and gave a fantastic pep talk about the next two weeks. He read a great story to the kids about CRT and what’s been happening the past two months at school. Then he explained why we tested and what happened with the results. I think it is really shows how much he cares about Hedges by coming in and talking to all the fourth graders. He really wants them to be comfortable with the test and know how they do. Last year our kids scored 100% proficient in some areas. Awesome! And they should know it.

After our pep talk we had fish dissection. Pulling out the eyeball was the worst part. Once that was over it was all downhill. It is interesting to see certain students really struggle with science and getting ‘dirty’ when they strive and thrive so easily in other areas. My goal was to get each kid to really touch their fish. I get that cutting can be yucky but touching it should be no big deal; there are way grosser things out there (like their desks). Over all successful day.

03.02.12

Happy Friday and Dr. Seuss day! Fourth grade was buzzing with anticipation for the Iditarod to start. We (finally) finished our trading cards, thank you notes, and other loose ends during the morning. In the afternoon we celebrated Dr. Seuss by making oobleck. I pulled this lesson together and it went fairly well. Unfortunately, the librarian was sick all week and the sub didn’t know how to look up a book, so we had to Youtube a reading of “Bartholomew and the Oobleck”. After last  recess the kids came back in and helped me cut our fraction into fifths. We then were scientists and made predictions and observations about our oobleck. It was awesome to see how excited they were. The kids were testing ideas, talking, and making connections. Sadly, we ran out of time and did not get to wrap up the lesson as neatly as I had intended. Hopefully this week we can touch back on it. Not ideal but I hate to leave good learning just dangling, what’s the point of it them?