Now that I've been teaching...

Yeah, it's been a while. It turns out that full time days are very tiring! My two days of substituting went very well. The kids were great. My teacher has been out of the room some since then and everything has gone smoothly.

We have a few criers in our class - one's a boy and the other is a girl. Today in class, the girl just broke down crying during our math rotation out of frustration from problem solving. Right now there's also a little crush situation going on, and this afternoon we found a "i like you" note from the girl to the boy on the floor in the classroom. It's a little ridiculous.

The past two weeks or so we've been a little frustrated with math for the lack of developing number sense for these students. They continually confuse place value and value of digits. However, when it comes to comparing and ordering numbers, I must brag that I made up a little chant with hand motions to help them remember greater than and less than - and they do! They can remember that > is greater than and < is less than. Hopefully they won't be fooled by the end of grade test!

This week we're working on a social studies project teaching economics. Students are working in business groups and are developing egg-protecting cases as a commissioned project for Humpty Dumpty. Their egg enclosure must help it resist breaking from a six foot fall. They have a budget of $500 available to them and must pay to rent/buy the materials and capital goods, including design and consulative services from the teacher and me. They did very well with it today. It's so precious to see them so excited and on task at the same time!

Day 9

This morning I did a lot of planning and preparing for tomorrow. Tomorrow my teacher has a sub and I'm going to be the "teacher" - it's my practice run before I take over Tuesday. And Tuesday, I'll officially be on my own - my teacher won't be there either and I'll be the "sub". I'm really excited though - I'm not very nervous anymore. I have a great class of kids.

This morning I did the morning meeting, then we did math rotations. Cursive went well - we're finally about half way through the lower-case alphabet. We made it through all of the letters that start at the base and go up on the first stroke. This afternoon we didn't get to our science lesson because we did the pretest for reading instead. Overall, the day went very well. I'm off to bed so I'll be well rested for tomorrow! :)

Day 8

Today was pretty typical - at least for this week. We did our math rotations this morning, and I definitely was subjected to a third grader's cheese that they cut, if you know what I mean. I was trapped behind my kidney table, left to wither in the foul aroma. Oh, third graders.

Cursive went well, except that we're slowing to the pace of one letter a day. Science was really fun - we taped the kids thumbs straight with popsicle sticks and to their index fingers. Then, they had to try to do different tasks with their 8 remaining fingers, like write their name, cut a circle out of paper, etc. They had a lot of fun learning and although they were noisy, they were engaged the whole time and got the job done.

This afternoon I stayed until 5:00 with my teacher planning for next week. I'm off to write my lesson plans for next week - I have plenty of them since I'm taking over next week!

Day 7

Days 4, 5, and 6 will be skipped. I was too tired! In summary, students shared their Me Bags (five items they brought in to tell about themselves) on Thursday, and on Friday we went over our interviews of someone 55+ years old. That was really awesome and was a great way to tie the lesson to the standard course of study (Goal 2 for Social Studies).

Yesterday I was starting to feel a little sick, and today I'm getting worse. All those germs are warring against me it seems. Yesterday we started math rotations and I taught a game practicing place value. I have continued to teach cursive, and we're finally about half way through the lowercase letters. Soon enough we'll be able to write any word we wish, just not capitalized. Yesterday we started the science kit on the human body. We discussed the importance of bones in the body and directly met the standards. We also learned how to take observations while doing an experiment - jumping rope.

Today we did a real experiment - we dissected owl pellets. In case you don't know, owls eat their food whole - digest what they can - then about 20 hours later regurgitate a "pellet" consisting of the parts of the animal they cannot digest (fur, bones, claws, teeth, etc). Luckily, I did this same experiment when I was in 3rd grade, so I was already a little familiar with it, but still, that was 10 years ago. The students did very well with their lab partners and made great connections to the human body. It seemed a little chaotic, but my teacher and I concluded that for the nature of the beast, they did a great job and didn't get out of hand at all.

One thing that I've been learning and growing at since day one is how to break things down step by step for third grade. After working with sixth grade last year, I was well adjusted to giving three or four directions at once and students completing them almost immediately. Third graders are a lot slower and need more directions. When I'm lesson planning, I really have to stop and think about how I should break tasks down into smaller and smaller steps so that I'll have their attention and we'll all stay on the same page. Thankfully, whatever isn't planned out seems to come natural to me - I can notice/decide very quickly to change the directions to better suit their attention spans.

Day 3

Today was similar to yesterday - that's the thing about the lower grades: more routines, more predictability. I taught more cursive today, which went very well. The students are adapting to the routine, and I think my class management skills are improving. I've learned that you have to give students directions as soon as they walk in the door or you're transitioning because if you wait around, they'll find other things to occupy their attention. The next thing you know, they're chatting and it's even more difficult to get their attention (I learned this in my internship with 6th graders; I've been fortunate not to experience it in my 3rd grade class and plan to prevent it with my precautions). I've learned how to build more routines with the students within the lessons so they know better what to expect - for example, when teaching cursive, the students now know to expect to practice a letter on their marker boards, I will approve/suggest corrections, and then they are to write a line of practice letters in their notebooks.

This afternoon students took STAR reading and math tests to help establish a baseline of data for their ZPD, approximate grade level, etc. It was interesting to get a better idea of what grade levels some of these kids are on.

It's far past my bed time. Yay - first Friday tomorrow!

Day 2

This morning we read some more of Muggie Maggie, a book about a 3rd grade girl who refuses to learn cursive. We did flashcards of simple addition and subtraction facts with the whole class to get an idea of where they stand with those. It was a little rough... We also gave a math assessment since we don't have the money to fund the 3rd grade pretest this year.

I taught more cursive today - the students were eager to learn and once again were asking when they'd learn more again. I also taught a social studies lesson on Google Earth. The kids loved getting to "fly" to their home addresses. We talked about the appearances of their community, then compared it to a city in Kenya. We looked at information about children in Kenya and looked at photos of the city and hospital in Kenya. The students saw that it was drastically different from ours that we have here in America.

I think I might be getting used to being tired. I did decide I need to make coffee in the morning for sure, and going to be at 10:00 helps a lot.

Day 1 !

Forgive me for not writing yesterday - it was the first day and extremely exhausting.

I woke up at 6:00 and arrived at school at 7:30.

We went over rules and procedures, gave out class numbers, talked about manners, established folders for different tasks and took up supplies. I taught a lesson introducing cursive and a social studies lesson making a coat of arms for each student. I never would have thought that students would be so excited about learning cursive! They kept asking when they would learn more - they were super duper excited which was encouraging.

I stayed at school until 5:00 to help plan for next week's lesson with my teacher and another 3rd grade teacher. I went to bed at 10:00. Yeah, long day, but great day.

Work Day 4

Today was the last work day. I finished up lesson plans and made copies of things needed for the week. I also made little notes for my students for the class mail boxes! :)

Today was a sort of open house - parents and students dropped by this afternoon to get forms and meet their teacher. It was neat but tiring. Note the time stamp: I'm going to bed now. Tomorrow is the first day of school.

Work Day 3

Friday I sat in the classroom and worked on lesson plans for the week ALL DAY LONG. I worked on cursive lesson plans and social studies lesson plans. I'm proud that we'll be covering an entire competency goal for Social Studies this week - how awesome! First week of school and we'll get through one whole goal for a subject.

I'm anticipating meeting parents and children Monday, and getting this show started Tuesday! Finally!

Work Day 2

Today was a real work day - all in the classroom.  My cooperating teacher and I worked on setting up the classroom some more - getting supplies in little baskets, getting names in cursive on the desk tags, cutting out laminated decorations and name tags, etc.  I worked on a writing center that currently consists of a little hanging mail folder for each student in the class.  I'll be making up prompts, letter formats, and topics for them to write, in cursive, to their classmates to practice cursive and language arts skills.  

This morning we also heard the encouraging kick off message via video from the superintendent for the district.  To demonstrate the use of new technologies, and to save in gas for every staff person in the district, he and a few colleagues prepared a dvd for each school to watch in house.  He covered the usual material: highlights and progress from last year, business to be improved, and new ideas and encouragement for the year.  Schools really do want us to use what we're learning in college now in our classrooms - they (at the higher level) want us to use podcasts, wikis, blogs, GPS technologies, -even texting and cell phones- to teach our students so that they will be engaged in their learning in this "digital" age.  I'm glad I have some knowledge about those and will be able to teach some of those skills to my cooperating teacher, but I must admit that most all of them I've learned here at college.  PowerPoints are no longer a good enough demonstration of technology!  Our kids already know what's out there - so why not teach them how to put their voice out there themselves?

This afternoon we had a grade level meeting.  Those happen quite frequently, as I found in my internship.  We had to decide which blocks of time we would have the Teacher Assistant in our room, and discuss and decide on the field trips we wanted to take this year.  

Tonight I'm home writing lesson plans for the few lessons I'll be teaching next week.  I'll be doing a little cursive with the students, helping to read a cute book about a girl that doesn't want to learn cursive, and possibly helping out with some science and social studies.  

Work Day 1

Today was my first day at my student teaching placement in an elementary school in Western NC.  I am in a third grade classroom and I'm very excited about my experiences this semester.  Today we spent the whole day in a school-wide meeting with the principal.  We were refreshed on paperwork, some school policies and procedures, and were told our expectations as staff/faculty from the principal's perspective.  Despite what some might suspect, a day long meeting isn't bad! :) Also, we were fed a delicious southern breakfast with all the 'fixins', short of grits but not lacking in much else.  It was interesting to see how staff interact with each other.  Putting a bunch of teachers into a room together is always humorous - we have that "teacher-complex" about us that gives us all the idea that we have the right to have side conversations, get up when we please, etc.  Of course, we also do the best job at it - since we know how to whisper and sneak in and out quietly.  However, our appearance of professionalism is at stake.  I think that's one of the most important things for me to keep in mind this semester as a student teacher - my professional appearance to the staff, parents, and children.  I think there is already an impact being made by my presence on work days.  Out of the other student teachers (from other universities), only one other student teacher was there today.  I think I would miss so much if I hadn't come today.  Tomorrow is a more classroom-focused work day, so my teacher and I will be working on some materials for the classroom.