Let's try to not get behind again!

Here are the posts for March up until this past Friday:

March 19 Spelling Quiz, 16 minutes of Heat, recommended they use their vocabulary and outline sheets while listening, last day for poetry books less 10 points; I’m really concerned I will be unable to obtain a teaching job. Not because I promised my daughter we would not leave the area for 2 years, but that I have no references who can say, “yes, she knows how to teach”. Kyle said to substitute teach or volunteer to coach or volunteer somewhere else. I can handle the substituting, but, considering my financial situation, volunteering just isn’t possible right now. Does this mean I’ll never teach “for real”?

March 18 Baseball key terms, correct spelling, very little Heat, how to write full sentences – amazing that students think it is enough to just give one or two words for an answer to a question – “You have the questions right there!” “And what if I don’t?” “Then it won’t make any sense, duh?!” Concept is lost on them!

March 17 CPR of Shamrocks, no Heat listening due to time, handout heat outline and vocabulary, remind of spelling WS and quiz

March 16 DARE

March 15 Spelling WS, History of Baseball, Author Mike Lupica, Write up 2 students & call parent; I did not like “writing up” students, but I understand the need for it – it is difficult to manage a classroom and impart knowledge if all you are doing is giving warnings to disruptive students. (copy of write up attached)

March 12 Poetry books due, spelling quiz, poetry theatre, work on books; Because I am a softy, just like Amy, I gave the students 30 minutes of class time to finish up their poetry books. This time was put to good use by ½ of the students who had not finished before class. The balance of the students are ones who just don’t seem to care. The students who did finish were given time to orally present their poetry “poetry theatre” which I found students would stay quiet for – maybe some of that idea of respect is seeping in!

March 11 Spelling WS, work on poetry books

March 10 CPR Paper bag greeting, didn’t go over as well as I would have liked

March 9 Computer lab, make up of poetry vocab quizzes, students present poems orally

March 8 Spelling WS, work on Poetry books

March 5 Computer lab, writing time; This was another opportunity for me to give individual instruction to students who were still having difficulties in writing their poetry. I have to ask myself why are they still lagging behind – is it me or is it them? Amy tells me that, first off, there is no way to be sure which it may be; second, if most of the kids are getting it and are progressing, then it is the students who are not catching on or applying themselves. The reasons for this could be varied – however the prime suspect at this stage (age and time of year) would be the kids don’t think it is important, so they aren’t giving it as much attention as their other studies or their lives. Does this mean that in order to have the students really learn about poetry that I’d have to give them direct instruction, many quizzes, and a cumulative test – like I got when I was in school? I hope not as I didn’t learn as much that way and it was boring!

March 4 Writing Time, poetry vocabulary using Lit book

March 3 CPR – name tent greeting; poetry vocabulary, discuss late work

March 2 Vocabulary quiz, poetry book rubric; although I do not wish to assign a failing grade to any student, why is it that if a student earns a failing grade that they cannot be forced into summer school or to repeating the year – or at least the subject they failed?

March 1 Computer lab, discuss syllabic & rhyme rules, rhyming dictionaries

Oh, my

Here are my late posts to finish up the month of February:

February 26 off

February 25 Full day of conferences – Parents haven’t changed, and neither have students; unfortunate, though, that parents of students who are having the most difficulties did not show up

February 24 Computer lab, CPR – compassion poem; poetry vocabulary Evening conferences

February 23 computer lab – short lesson on using Word to create cover page and to add page breaks, as this was impromptu, I don’t have a lesson plan, but plan to use it in my checklist; powerpoint on poetry books handout, read a poem

February 22 The viceprincipal interrupted class to handle registration paperwork; poetry, vocabulary handout

February 19 Career Day Data – although this 8 hours of line reading and paper pushing counts toward a “standard”, I don’t see that I learned anything; also brings the question to mind, why not give Student teachers a list of activities to choose from to help with – dances, after school, things like this – and require that, say out of 6, they must attend 3 of their choosing; or, does democracy not exist when it comes to student teaching?

Being Observed

Today was Day 2 of poetry. It went much better than yesterday! Asking the students to completely clear their desks, and telling them I would be asking them to discuss the poem I read really seemed to help with their participation. So much so that, after discussing the WM Carlos WMs poem, M.B. shared his poem - and the kids had fun and then were amazed that they learned something!

During 5th hour Mr. Coe observed. He was impressed with everything and said I was proficient in quite a few areas. He did say that I didn't seem to have a good boundary between myself and students. I've got to think about that and work on it.

Caught Up!

Wednesday, February 17

Today I began the Poetry unit. It is going to be a longer unit than I originally planned. I am hoping that the students get more out of this unit than they have with other lessons over the last several weeks.

I read a poem from the book "How to eat a poem" in the hopes it would start them thinking. It worked for all but one class. There is always tomorrow!

Missing Days

Friday, February 12 I was not in school. My husband had emergency spine surgery.

Monday, February 15 there was no school, to observe President's Day.

How to handle a bad day

Today was not such a good day. I know it happens to everyone in every profession. I feel like I cheated the students, though, not being at my best. Having "personal" problems is difficult when I'm trying to be personable. Most of the kids, though, understood and cut me some slack. But, of course, there are those who are so caught up in their own lives that a teacher having a bad day doesn't matter.

I have to say that not feeling 100% when I am teaching is heartbreaking. I want to give students 110% of myself all the time! They will forgive me and I'll make up for it!

Envelopes and Question Marks

Today was Postive Peer Relations day. I taught students how to address an envelope. I am still surprised that, at the age of 11, most kids did not know how to do this! I was writing letters when I was 8 - but, that was way before email, Internet, and cable TV.

Books!

February 9

Today we took each hour to the book fair in the library. Actually, I didn't go until 5th hour, as I was busy getting the ActivBoard to work properly - and my knee was bothering me.

The only thing of interest was something that happened to me. I mentioned before that there are a lot of students who are from very low income homes. Some of these kids are bright, interested, and just plain good. Some of these kids also wanted books to read. Each hour I wanted to pull out my wallet and say, "Here. Buy a book for yourself." But, I couldn't. And that broke my heart.

Many Posts

I am behind 5 Journal Entries. I've decided to make them individual entries, for ease of reading.

February 8

Today was a mixed bag - some from Mrs. Skala, some from me. We started with Unit 13 Spelling worksheets. The students knew the "drill" and helped me along. First, I read the words; second I explain the worksheet; third, I give them time to work on it. Simple enough.

Then, I had the students work on goals. Amy gave me the goal sheets the students created in their first weeks of school. I pushed the students - I asked them to create or re-write 2 goals, one personal and 1 academic. It was a disaster! I don't know if I was asking too much of their developing brains (and I'm not being mean) or if they just didn't care. Perhaps my instructions were not clear or I explained too fast. I'm not sure.

As much as I like this group of students, I don't know if I can get to the level of explanation they need. I'll have to get out my Ed Psych book and review brain development.

I got to do some teachin'

We split each class into 2 today, as we have been doing since last Friday. This works well because everyone gets a chance to work on their papers and receive lessons.
And, as the same as yesterday, I stayed in the main classroom with the students working on spelling and ALWFC worksheets. While Amy was in the mini-classroom with students and laptops. I did offer to take the "afternoon shift" for her, but, as frustrated as she was (with students waaaaaaaaaaaay off task) she wanted to continue to work with them on laptops because, as she said, it was her baby. Amy loves those kids and loves her job - otherwise, she wouldn't continue to work through her frustrations.
My plan is to be like Amy - realize there are going to be bad days and kids who don't care. But, there are also those who have great potential and light your day.

Wed, Feb 3

I never realized how lazy people are in 6th grade.

The students are working on a research paper to go along with their science fair projects. Although this is their first research paper, there are still some requirements to follow. One is that their cover page include the name of their topic, their name, their class hour, their pod, and the date. No matter how many instructions or how much guidance the students were given, more than 1/2 of the students (a) did not follow formatting directions (b) used a "readable" font, such as TNR, Times, or Arial; and most frustrating and interesting (c) did not bother to spell out the month in the date of their paper. I asked one student why she did not type out 'January' and instead just used 'Jan'; she asked why she couldn't; I explained that it was against the instructions; to which she replied, "Well, that is a dumb instruction" and did not change her typing. If I were grading her cover sheet, she would lose points for 'Jan', using some twirly font that is difficult to read, and not following the format (by placing her name before the title of the paper). But, that's just me...

February 2, 2010

Today, I was "in charge". Amy gave me the ruler and the ActivBoard pen and said, "Go for it!"
I am exhausted but feel very happy!
I'm going to write a lesson plan that has me use the ActivBoard - it is a very cool device!
My classroom management skills are improving - much to students' dismay. I can be nice, but I do expect respect - toward me and other students.
Tonight I expect to have dreams about teaching!

A Fresh Week

It's Monday, Week 4. There are times I feel like it is my first day, times I feel I've been doing it forever, and times that I just can't keep up! All of it is exhilarating!

Today, the usual - Daily News, Announcements, reminder about responsibility and respect.
Today, the not so usual - I gave the students a brief idea of what I would be "teaching" on Tuesday. Sure, it is a Learning Styles 'Quiz', but Amy wanted them to be prepared. That was easy.

Again, Amy split the classes into 2 groups - one for laptops and the other for ALWFC. I had the first 2 hours of laptops. I figured out one problem: lack of attention and listening on the part of the students. I'll have to look for a lesson that "grades" them on their attention/listening skills...maybe. When the students were using the laptops, they could not focus nor stay on task. I started to think it was me who was the problem - which would end my teaching career immediately! Then, I remembered all the other people I "taught" through the years, and figured it wasn't me. So, I tried something that worked, but I didn't like using - I gave them specific direction and time to accomplish the directions or they would lose laptop use for the 1/2 hour. Ugh...I hate punishments! I also hate when they work - which they did!

I have to say that during H2, the first 1/2 with all boys went much more smoothly and with out all the drama of the second half of the hour, with the girls. Now, boys have their drama too, but they are easier to put back on task. I think I'll have to get my Ed Psych book out and re-read the chapter on how to herd cats!

I did get to use elmo-cam the second half of the day, when Amy supervised the laptop users. It is a very easy piece of equipment, and doesn't make me have to think backwards (as in, my right is my right and not my left) when I use it. I reviewed analogies, using words from ALWFC; then I gave them instruction on answering 9 questions from the last chapter of the book. It looked like a lot, but, once students realized they only needed to write one sentence and that all the answers were in the book, the tension in the room released.

We moved on to spelling - I gave them their spelling list (showing it through elmo) and their worksheet (again, elmo). I asked if anyone knew the definition of an adverb and, although the 'answer' is on a poster in the room, no one could answer my question. *sigh* So, I reviewed the definition and use of the adverb, explained that was the Unit 11 Spelling concept, and let them go.

Now that I've mastered elmo, we just need to get the ActiveBoard calibrated so I can master it!

Friday

Another day of not much to tell. Perhaps I should be giving more information about what I do with my days? I'll start that Monday, fresh.

Amy has her routine down pat; each hour has the same "schedule"

1. Daily News (for H1, this also includes Daily Announcements)
2. Bad jokes/puns
3. On with the show

This week, we had the added feature of splitting the students into 2 groups each hour - one worked on the book "A Long Way From Chicago" while the other worked on their papers on the reserved laptops. Then, 1/2 way through the hour, the groups switched. This way, students had an (near) equal time to work on their papers. Problem is, their motivation to work on these papers just isn't there. There are only a handful of students out of the ~120 that (a) want to work on their papers (b) take this assignment seriously and (c) are interested. Amy can't figure out what the disconnect is, and I certainly am still clueless.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Having Prep-time 3rd hour is odd - it seems I have less time to do what I need to do; I feel pressured. Perhaps it is because lunch comes after 3rd hour; whereas prep at 6th hour just rolled into after school time. I need to work on making my goals for prep time a bit tighter.

Volunteering

This afternoon, after classes, the Student Teachers met with Paula M., who is in charge of the Career Day Fair the Middle School holds in May. The STs were volunteered by the Principal to help coordinate the pre-fair doings. This will give us a great opportunity to (a) fulfill some of our Student Teaching requirements and (b) get a taste of the "real" teaching life - being on a committee and such.

The only concern we (STs) had was that we were not given a choice as to what activities to volunteer for. In a way, the act of "making" us part of a project gives us the feeling of being "free labor" and not respected as soon-to-be-professionals. Perhaps if we were told, "There are X number of activities happening during your student teaching and you must volunteer for Y number of them."

Anyway, next week I have my first observation. That is, the University advisor will be in class to observe me. YIKES! I have my lesson plan ready and I'm sure I'll do fine. I just hope I don't get a case of the shakes!

That's all for today!