Week Six

 

02.20.12

          No school, President’s Day.

02.21.12

          I took one of my absent days for travel.

02.22.12

          Back at it after a long weekend. The students were excited to see me again and I was glad to see them. Pretty mellow day; CRT practice, reading core in Scott Foresman, and fractions math. It took about half the day to get back in the swing of things for Mary and myself. We were scheduled to help the first grade work on power point again in the afternoon. Oops. We were a bit late, but made things work. One fourth grader had a serious meltdown. I attempted to help him at first and get back on track when he was arguing and being down right mean to his first grade partner. The mood didn’t change and by the afternoon I was teaching our reading core so Mary could talk with this kiddo. It’s really great to have both of us so we can give students this one-on-one time. Mary lets me practice handling some situations but there are so cases where it’s better for her to handle it. After school we talked about how it was a bit of a scrambled day, and what made it especially hard was this kid got to her, and me. Most days we can brush it off, but sometimes there is a kid that really gets under you skin for the day. Take it in, help them the best you can, but in the end you sometimes need to walk away.

02.23.12

       Things were looking up for Mary and I today, back on track with our schedule. Mr. B came by this morning and asked to borrow me for thirty minutes to sub in the second grade. This made me feel fantastic and useful. The regular sub had an interview in the building for a fulltime sub position (fingers crossed for her) so he asked me to step in for a few. I loved having the chance to see what another class was like. The kids were so sweet. We came in and got right to work. They were accommodating to me being there. It will be fun at the end of this experience to observe other classes and teachers! The rest of the day went smooth. Small reading group we read about wolves and practiced CRT responses. Math fractions and Scott Foresman in the afternoon. And, we finally started our science CRT. We did this as a class and used it as a study guide not a test. The kids really dug it! I’ll be leading this next week as well.

02.24.12

      Friday came so quick this week, I had way more energy than most weeks. We attended a concert at FHS and the morning flew by. Our class walked to the high school and it was fun to see the kids in a social setting. I really enjoyed listening, talking, and joking with them. The concert was great. We were nervous that the students would get bored and noisy but they kept interest through the whole set. We got back just in time for lunch. A few boys stayed in for our weekly picnic.

      Mary took off after lunch to head to Havre and I took over the rest of the day. We had a sub come in and help with busy work/grading homework. It was awesome to get the class to myself for the afternoon. Things went really well and I felt like I had a good flow, finally. Yes, there were a few parts that I would change looking back, like asking what exactly are the expectations during Great Behavior, but nothing major. The students and I worked well together. I posted the afternoon schedule on the board and that really tends to help me get through the day, especially when we have so many things to do! Our class meeting was nice and we seemed to bond as a class. Yay for Fridays!!!!

      I’m excited for next week. It will be busy, like usual, but we start a unit on the Iditarod and it is Dr. Seuss Day. Fun times in fourth grade.