Overall, teaching wise, this was a good week. However, as I have mentioned before, we have one student who I find myself thinking about more often than not. She (Bobet) has struggled with major attendance and behavior issues for the past few years. Aware of the fact that many people have attempted to take the "discipline" approach with her, My CT and I decided right away that we would take a different approach because what was being done was obviously not working. Just thinking back to August, it seems that we have tried almost every management strategy possible; and, for a while something was working and there was growth and change.
Additionally, She was so motivated to go to college and we actually had amazing resources to help keep her motivated. We continuously told her how much we care about her, regardless of what she said and did. We have told her that we weren't going to let her give up because we cared too much about her and her future. And that's when I came to the realization that I cannot force any child not to give up as much as I want to. No matter what I or anyone else does do, there is no way to make a student do anything, unless they, at least, kind of want to do it themselves. This was a tough realization for me very frustrating to think about. Especially, because I know what she can and could do.
I really try not to take specific situations like this personally, but for some reason, with this girl I can't help it. I have decided to continue helping her stay motivated about her college dream. However, I don't think she (or any of my students) understands how you actually get to college, and the steps that need to be taken to get there. I think if she understood that in order to go to college, you have to work hard in elementary, middle and high school then her attitude may change because she, hopefully, would realize that what she is doing now does affect her future.
My goals for this week include:
In math, I have two goals: facilitating productive student-led math discussion and implementing journaling into my math instruction. Facilitating student-led mathematical discussion is my research question and I plan to start implementing the strategies I got from my research. This week I will try promoting mathematical disagreements by using incorrect answers.
In science we will be working on STEM fair all week. My new goal is to implement authentic, meaningful journaling into my science instruction. Right now, my kids are using their science notebooks, but not in the way that a real scientist uses them. I plan to show an interesting PowerPoint that Jeni made about real scientists and how they use their notebooks. In writing, I made a new goal, which is to connect a text to the craft or skill I am teaching, rather than only using and showing the kids my modeled writing. I think this will help make a real life connection because it shows kids that real authors use the skills and crafts that they are learning.
Overall, this was a super fun week! Our kids were beyond themselves with excitement for Halloween. Each morning the kids would come in and look at the calendar to make sure they had the countdown correct. I know schools don't celebrate Halloween, but I'm really glad that Hillsborough County participates in Book-O-Ween, because it is so much fun for the kids and the teachers. I really love seeing my students so happy and excited! It is also nice to see teachers and other faculty and staff dressing up and having a good time. That being said, I also am very thankful that I am at a school where the principal allows and encourages activities like monthly pep rally's and costume contests.
Additionally, our Book-O-Ween costumes this year were extremely special for one particular student whose dream is to be a math professor at USF. I think she really just wants to be a math professor at any school, but because I go to USF and she sees 'USF people", as she refers to them, so often that she has USF stuck in her mind. Unfortunately, she has major attendance issues and when she does come go school, she also struggles with behavior. Regardless, once we discovered that she wanted to be a professor, we ran with it. For years, she has been "disciplined" for her behavior and attendance issues so my CT and I thought we would take a different approach.
So, we read Judy Moody Goes To College and dressed up as college graduates. I made each student a graduation cap and we printed out diplomas for everyone as well. Before the parade we imitated a graduation calling each student up one by one and handing them their diplomas. Initially, *Bobet* agreed to wear a graduation gown that our writing resource teacher brought in for us, however she changed her mind last minute so we let another student wear it (he was beside himself). We also made a sign that said "presenting class of 2026". Our kids were so proud of their little costumes and my CT and I loved every minute of it.
Furthermore, this week I am continuing to work on my goals I made last week. Like I've mentioned before, I definitely informal assess what our students do, but when it comes to science I have not been very good about planning out what I will assess. So, my science goal is to continue to plan my assessments so they are purposeful and clearly connect to the content I am teaching.
In math, I have two goals: facilitating productive student-led math discussion and implementing journaling into my math instruction. Facilitating student-led mathematical discussion is my research question and I plan to start implementing the strategies I got from my research. This week I will try promoting mathematical disagreements by using incorrect answers.
In writing my goal is to continue trying to always connect a text to the craft or skill I am teaching, rather than only using and showing the kids my modeled writing. I think this will help make a real life connection because it shows kids that real authors use the skills and crafts that they are learning.
October 27, 2013
This four- day week flew by quick, not that I'm complaining. Usually, after a normal weekend our kids are quiet and tired for most of Monday. Surprisingly, on Tuesday they all seemed well rested and alert. Red ribbon week started this week on Wednesday with a door-decorating contest. I found some really cute ideas on Pinterest. Our class decided on doing, "We would rather eat bugs than do drugs". My kids thought it was absolutely hysterical and they just could not believe that we were going to put that on our classroom door. They each made bugs, which we put all over the door and then they wrote a short story using the prompt, 'I would rather _______ than do drugs', which we placed around the door. To our surprise, a couple of our students who have serious attendance problems wrote that they would rather go to school than do drugs. It was really sweet. Additionally, we had a class meeting about saying no to drugs, specifically focusing on smoking because it is the gateway drug. We showed them pictures of healthy pink lungs of a non-smoker and then showed them pictures of dark gray, gunky, unhealthy lungs of a smoker. Judging by their reactions, I think the pictures truly made an impression and it is something that will, hopefully, stick with them for a long time.
Furthermore, this week I am continuing to work on my goals I made last week. Last week, I realized that I have been so focused and worried about my science instruction that I kind of forget about assessment. I definitely informal assess what they do, but when it comes to science I have not been very good about planning out what I will assess. So, my science goal is to plan my assessments so they are purposeful and clearly connect to the content I am teaching.
In math, I have two goals: facilitating productive student-led math discussion and implementing journaling into my math instruction. Facilitating student-led mathematical discussion is my research question and I plan to start implementing the strategies I got from my research. This week I will try promoting mathematical disagreements by using incorrect answers.
In writing, I made a new goal, which is to connect a text to the craft or skill I am teaching, rather than only using and showing the kids my modeled writing. I think this will help make a real life connection because it shows kids that real authors use the skills and crafts that they are learning.
This four- day week flew by quick, not that I'm complaining. Usually, after a normal weekend our kids are quiet and tired for most of Monday. Surprisingly, on Tuesday they all seemed well rested and alert. Red ribbon week started this week on Wednesday with a door-decorating contest. I found some really cute ideas on Pinterest. Our class decided on doing, "We would rather eat bugs than do drugs". My kids thought it was absolutely hysterical and they just could not believe that we were going to put that on our classroom door. They each made bugs, which we put all over the door and then they wrote a short story using the prompt, 'I would rather _______ than do drugs', which we placed around the door. To our surprise, a couple of our students who have serious attendance problems wrote that they would rather go to school than do drugs. It was really sweet. Additionally, we had a class meeting about saying no to drugs, specifically focusing on smoking because it is the gateway drug. We showed them pictures of healthy pink lungs of a non-smoker and then showed them pictures of dark gray, gunky, unhealthy lungs of a smoker. Judging by their reactions, I think the pictures truly made an impression and it is something that will, hopefully, stick with them for a long time.
Furthermore, this week I am continuing to work on my goals I made last week. Last week, I realized that I have been so focused and worried about my science instruction that I kind of forget about assessment. I definitely informal assess what they do, but when it comes to science I have not been very good about planning out what I will assess. So, my science goal is to plan my assessments so they are purposeful and clearly connect to the content I am teaching.
In math, I have two goals: facilitating productive student-led math discussion and implementing journaling into my math instruction. Facilitating student-led mathematical discussion is my research question and I plan to start implementing the strategies I got from my research. This week I will try promoting mathematical disagreements by using incorrect answers.
In writing, I made a new goal, which is to connect a text to the craft or skill I am teaching, rather than only using and showing the kids my modeled writing. I think this will help make a real life connection because it shows kids that real authors use the skills and crafts that they are learning.
October 13, 2013
This was another busy week. Once again, our schedule was off because we had our first reading module and we also had our field trip on Friday. The field trip was such a great experience for my kiddos and I am working on a reflection that focuses on the field trip and the correlating lessons we made that integrate science with reading and writing. As I mentioned, a big focus this week was our first reading module. My CT and I are both extremely curious to see how they did. It was clear that many of them struggled with answering the text dependent questions, especially the ones about figurative language and making inferences.
Additionally, I am especially curious find out how they will do on the performance task. For this task they will have to answer the essential question in a summary format using text evidence. I'm a little worried that our kids are not sufficiently prepared to write up to the standard that is now required. In the beginning of the year, at least once or twice a week, we had our kids respond to the text that we used during shared, then that would carry over to independent reading depending on the amount of time it took each child to finish. It seemed that slowly but surely our kids were really learning how to take information, make inferences and form their own opinions based off of what they read. Then we noticed that for a majority of our kids, the quality of writing (conventions, spelling, ect.) was not very good. My third graders were misspelling sight words like 'the' and 'get'. We also noticed that they really, really struggled with phonics.
As a result, we started focusing more on traditional writing where we model our beginning, middle and end and connect the craft we are teaching to a text. During this time we focused on each individual students needs. For example, as they individually wrote, my CT and I would walk around and observed what each student needed the most. Then, we made sure to incorporate those needed skills into our modeled writing and into our guided and shared lessons. More or less, that is what we are currently doing. I do believe that it is helping them, as we have seen much improvement. Fran and I were talking the other day and we realized that all we do is respond to texts in one way or another. It is a necessary skill to be able to take a piece of information and analyze, infer and form opinions around it. My kids start the performance task on Monday to finish up the first module. I think after we see the results we will now where to go from there.
Lastly, one thing I am still struggling with is how do you know when to do different types of writing? For example, like I mentioned earlier, I know my kids need to learn to respond and use text when they write. Then again, I know that they are third graders and need to express themselves and I know creative writing is such a meaningful way to do that. When do you do what? How do you know when to do it? I think about this question often and I imagine that the answer I will receive is that I need to know my kids and that I should do whatever my kids need. Nevertheless, I am really struggling with determining what to teach because I truly feel that they need it all.
Furthermore, my major goal for this week is centered around classroom management. I need to practice keeping calm and watching my facial expressions during distracting situations.
This was another busy week. Once again, our schedule was off because we had our first reading module and we also had our field trip on Friday. The field trip was such a great experience for my kiddos and I am working on a reflection that focuses on the field trip and the correlating lessons we made that integrate science with reading and writing. As I mentioned, a big focus this week was our first reading module. My CT and I are both extremely curious to see how they did. It was clear that many of them struggled with answering the text dependent questions, especially the ones about figurative language and making inferences.
Additionally, I am especially curious find out how they will do on the performance task. For this task they will have to answer the essential question in a summary format using text evidence. I'm a little worried that our kids are not sufficiently prepared to write up to the standard that is now required. In the beginning of the year, at least once or twice a week, we had our kids respond to the text that we used during shared, then that would carry over to independent reading depending on the amount of time it took each child to finish. It seemed that slowly but surely our kids were really learning how to take information, make inferences and form their own opinions based off of what they read. Then we noticed that for a majority of our kids, the quality of writing (conventions, spelling, ect.) was not very good. My third graders were misspelling sight words like 'the' and 'get'. We also noticed that they really, really struggled with phonics.
As a result, we started focusing more on traditional writing where we model our beginning, middle and end and connect the craft we are teaching to a text. During this time we focused on each individual students needs. For example, as they individually wrote, my CT and I would walk around and observed what each student needed the most. Then, we made sure to incorporate those needed skills into our modeled writing and into our guided and shared lessons. More or less, that is what we are currently doing. I do believe that it is helping them, as we have seen much improvement. Fran and I were talking the other day and we realized that all we do is respond to texts in one way or another. It is a necessary skill to be able to take a piece of information and analyze, infer and form opinions around it. My kids start the performance task on Monday to finish up the first module. I think after we see the results we will now where to go from there.
Lastly, one thing I am still struggling with is how do you know when to do different types of writing? For example, like I mentioned earlier, I know my kids need to learn to respond and use text when they write. Then again, I know that they are third graders and need to express themselves and I know creative writing is such a meaningful way to do that. When do you do what? How do you know when to do it? I think about this question often and I imagine that the answer I will receive is that I need to know my kids and that I should do whatever my kids need. Nevertheless, I am really struggling with determining what to teach because I truly feel that they need it all.
Furthermore, my major goal for this week is centered around classroom management. I need to practice keeping calm and watching my facial expressions during distracting situations.
October 6, 2013
I feel like for the last month, each week has been crazy busy! This week, I felt off because I left early on Thursday and I was not here on Friday. However, we also had a pep rally, a big math test and our first reading module, so our schedule was off pretty much all week. Every time there is a slight change in our schedule, I realize, again, how important it is to keep students informed about what is going on.
Additionally, because the schedule was so random this week, my CT and I co-taught more than I took the lead, which was helpful. It gave me more time to plan for this upcoming week. I planned another writing lesson about show writing. I'm glad I have been taking the lead in writing because it is one subject that I am not totally comfortable with. I have no problem connecting a craft or skill to a text, but I have SO much trouble with writing my own stories to model. It takes me longer to write a story to model for third graders than it does for me to write my science papers for class. That's a problem! I know that there are websites that have pre-written stories for specific crafts, but I think my writing lessons are more authentic when I write about my own real-life experiences and about things that have happened to me. My kids love it; hearing about my life or my CT's life keeps them incredibly engaged. Needless to say, this has definitely become one of my long-term goals to work this year.
On a different note, from now on, every Wednesday Jeni will be coming to Mort to plan science with Fran, Savannah, our CT's and I. This will be extremely helpful because my CT has not taught science in five years and I, honestly, have no clue where to begin. We decided last week that the Residents in third grade are going to be responsible for the STEM fair lessons each Monday and the facilitating the Science Olympics all this week. We also planned an awesome lesson to help make our field trip this week a learning experience. I have already started another reflection about the importance of connecting learning in real life situations. I'm really excited!
I feel like for the last month, each week has been crazy busy! This week, I felt off because I left early on Thursday and I was not here on Friday. However, we also had a pep rally, a big math test and our first reading module, so our schedule was off pretty much all week. Every time there is a slight change in our schedule, I realize, again, how important it is to keep students informed about what is going on.
Additionally, because the schedule was so random this week, my CT and I co-taught more than I took the lead, which was helpful. It gave me more time to plan for this upcoming week. I planned another writing lesson about show writing. I'm glad I have been taking the lead in writing because it is one subject that I am not totally comfortable with. I have no problem connecting a craft or skill to a text, but I have SO much trouble with writing my own stories to model. It takes me longer to write a story to model for third graders than it does for me to write my science papers for class. That's a problem! I know that there are websites that have pre-written stories for specific crafts, but I think my writing lessons are more authentic when I write about my own real-life experiences and about things that have happened to me. My kids love it; hearing about my life or my CT's life keeps them incredibly engaged. Needless to say, this has definitely become one of my long-term goals to work this year.
On a different note, from now on, every Wednesday Jeni will be coming to Mort to plan science with Fran, Savannah, our CT's and I. This will be extremely helpful because my CT has not taught science in five years and I, honestly, have no clue where to begin. We decided last week that the Residents in third grade are going to be responsible for the STEM fair lessons each Monday and the facilitating the Science Olympics all this week. We also planned an awesome lesson to help make our field trip this week a learning experience. I have already started another reflection about the importance of connecting learning in real life situations. I'm really excited!
September 29, 2013
This was another crazy week. I felt like I was hardly there at all! We had many STAR visits this week, so there were many different people in and out of our classrooms. This week my focus became centered on how information gets misconstrued as it gets passed down, specifically regarding information about how to effectively teach with the common core standards. Just this year, we have been told to teach shared reading three different ways! And we have only been in school for five weeks. It does get frustrating that no one seems to completely understand the "game plan", if you will, but I acknowledge that this is one of those things that will take time.
One of the reasons that I'm bringing this up is because I got to attend the FRA conference this week. I got to watch a panel of men who are highly respected in regards to literacy education. They answered questions about the CCSS and discussed what the intention was when the standards were written. One of my favorite things I heard this weekend is that the CCSS, or any standards for that matter, are goals. They are goals that students should demonstrate proficiency in by the end of the school year. And, it is so true. Yet, it frustrates me that we assess students on these standards long before the end of the school year. I understand that many teachers do go back and re-assess at the end of the year, but I've also observed that a lot of the time teachers don't go back at the end of the year to re-check for proficiency because of all of the other testing going on- the 'regular' testing seems to get lost in the shuffle of things. Moreover, I really don't mean for this to sound like a rant, but I just think it's so interesting...and simultaneously frustrating how information gets translated in so many different ways.
This was another crazy week. I felt like I was hardly there at all! We had many STAR visits this week, so there were many different people in and out of our classrooms. This week my focus became centered on how information gets misconstrued as it gets passed down, specifically regarding information about how to effectively teach with the common core standards. Just this year, we have been told to teach shared reading three different ways! And we have only been in school for five weeks. It does get frustrating that no one seems to completely understand the "game plan", if you will, but I acknowledge that this is one of those things that will take time.
One of the reasons that I'm bringing this up is because I got to attend the FRA conference this week. I got to watch a panel of men who are highly respected in regards to literacy education. They answered questions about the CCSS and discussed what the intention was when the standards were written. One of my favorite things I heard this weekend is that the CCSS, or any standards for that matter, are goals. They are goals that students should demonstrate proficiency in by the end of the school year. And, it is so true. Yet, it frustrates me that we assess students on these standards long before the end of the school year. I understand that many teachers do go back and re-assess at the end of the year, but I've also observed that a lot of the time teachers don't go back at the end of the year to re-check for proficiency because of all of the other testing going on- the 'regular' testing seems to get lost in the shuffle of things. Moreover, I really don't mean for this to sound like a rant, but I just think it's so interesting...and simultaneously frustrating how information gets translated in so many different ways.
September 15, 2013
This was another week that flew by. I'm not going to lie, we had some challenging situations and it got pretty stressful towards the end of the week (I will tell you about that in person). My CT and I have noticed that the honeymoon phase is now over with out students and all of the personalities are starting to come out. Because of that, we really spent a lot of time reviewing our community living norms that we created the first day of school, and I think it has really helped. For example, we have had some major issues after PE. Our class comes back literally screaming and threatening to fight one another. And, because our specials are from 1:15-1:45, by the time we get everything and everyone settled down, it is time to pack up and valuable learning time is lost. So, as a result, we started having our classroom meetings before PE in order to discuss, as a class, how we should handle problems that arise during PE. We discussed, every hypothetical situation and went into what they should do and how they should go about doing it. We were not sure if these discussions would really set in or not, but it is so important that they become their own problem-solvers. Luckily, we noticed a different the first day we tried it. They were laughing in line when we went to pick them instead of crying and yelling. Then, we had another meeting to discuss what made this PE time different from the previous week. Surprisingly, they all answered incredibly honestly- it was so cute! So far, we have had no issues like we have had in previous weeks. It is amazing to see what a difference it makes to teach and help them to solve their own problems, rather than just trying to solve the whole classes problems as the teacher. This week also helped me solidify the idea that you have to consistently do community-building activities in order to keep the community running smoothly. Just doing it in the beginning of the year is definitely not enough.
This was another week that flew by. I'm not going to lie, we had some challenging situations and it got pretty stressful towards the end of the week (I will tell you about that in person). My CT and I have noticed that the honeymoon phase is now over with out students and all of the personalities are starting to come out. Because of that, we really spent a lot of time reviewing our community living norms that we created the first day of school, and I think it has really helped. For example, we have had some major issues after PE. Our class comes back literally screaming and threatening to fight one another. And, because our specials are from 1:15-1:45, by the time we get everything and everyone settled down, it is time to pack up and valuable learning time is lost. So, as a result, we started having our classroom meetings before PE in order to discuss, as a class, how we should handle problems that arise during PE. We discussed, every hypothetical situation and went into what they should do and how they should go about doing it. We were not sure if these discussions would really set in or not, but it is so important that they become their own problem-solvers. Luckily, we noticed a different the first day we tried it. They were laughing in line when we went to pick them instead of crying and yelling. Then, we had another meeting to discuss what made this PE time different from the previous week. Surprisingly, they all answered incredibly honestly- it was so cute! So far, we have had no issues like we have had in previous weeks. It is amazing to see what a difference it makes to teach and help them to solve their own problems, rather than just trying to solve the whole classes problems as the teacher. This week also helped me solidify the idea that you have to consistently do community-building activities in order to keep the community running smoothly. Just doing it in the beginning of the year is definitely not enough.
September 8, 2013
This has been a crazy three weeks! But, I am so happy I got to experience what the first few weeks of school are like for teachers and for students. This is going to sound weird, but I was fully aware that you needed to teach everything regarding classroom procedures and such, however at the same time, I was unaware that you literally had to teach everything- like how to appropriately transition from desks to the carpet and back and how to sit on the carpet. Regardless, I'm glad I got to be part of pre-planning and the first week.
Additionally, this week I am going to focus on differentiation. I am so thankful that my CT is comfortable and effective at differentiating lessons and work for our kiddos. This year, our students are all over the place in reference to things like reading and math levels. We have some students who are working on letter recognition and some students who are already above a third grade reading level. Our class is also ESE. With two of us in the room, we have started doing in more small group teaching. We will start of the lesson by teaching to our core group and then break everyone up from there. So far, I've noticed that by doing this, everyone stays engaged because everyone is working on something that is actually beneficial and meeting his or her individual needs. However, it does take forever! It takes us an entire day to get homework together on so many different levels and for so many kids (we do a weekly homework packet).
On a different note, I would also like to start incorporating the cooperative learning strategies I focused so much on last year. I was looking at some of the lessons I videotaped last year and comparing them to my lessons I've done this year and I realized that I have hardly used any of the strategies. A key part of almost all of my reflections last year was how actively engaged my kids were during my lessons. However, this year I don't totally feel the same way and I think it's because I'm missing the engagement factor (the most important part). I am going to try introducing a couple strategies this week into my shared reading and sciences lessons and see how it goes. Our class is ESE, so I thinking using a multitude of strategies with a multitude of learning styles will only be beneficial.
This has been a crazy three weeks! But, I am so happy I got to experience what the first few weeks of school are like for teachers and for students. This is going to sound weird, but I was fully aware that you needed to teach everything regarding classroom procedures and such, however at the same time, I was unaware that you literally had to teach everything- like how to appropriately transition from desks to the carpet and back and how to sit on the carpet. Regardless, I'm glad I got to be part of pre-planning and the first week.
Additionally, this week I am going to focus on differentiation. I am so thankful that my CT is comfortable and effective at differentiating lessons and work for our kiddos. This year, our students are all over the place in reference to things like reading and math levels. We have some students who are working on letter recognition and some students who are already above a third grade reading level. Our class is also ESE. With two of us in the room, we have started doing in more small group teaching. We will start of the lesson by teaching to our core group and then break everyone up from there. So far, I've noticed that by doing this, everyone stays engaged because everyone is working on something that is actually beneficial and meeting his or her individual needs. However, it does take forever! It takes us an entire day to get homework together on so many different levels and for so many kids (we do a weekly homework packet).
On a different note, I would also like to start incorporating the cooperative learning strategies I focused so much on last year. I was looking at some of the lessons I videotaped last year and comparing them to my lessons I've done this year and I realized that I have hardly used any of the strategies. A key part of almost all of my reflections last year was how actively engaged my kids were during my lessons. However, this year I don't totally feel the same way and I think it's because I'm missing the engagement factor (the most important part). I am going to try introducing a couple strategies this week into my shared reading and sciences lessons and see how it goes. Our class is ESE, so I thinking using a multitude of strategies with a multitude of learning styles will only be beneficial.