Today was kind of slow in the fourth grade. I had only two students today. One I knew was going to be absent and one has missed three days in a row and I am not sure what is going on there. With the two that were there we did a review and they studied the chapter study guide, then we took the quiz. I have only one girl in my class and she is classified as MMD. She is a bright student just is very withdrawn and unsure of herself. She is starting to come out of the shell though. She actually scored a 90% on the quiz and the other student scored 65%. The one who scored 65 has multiple disabilities, one of which is ADHD. He did not find the patience to listen to the instructions or the desire to change anything on his quiz sheet. We have noticed lately that he does not even want to take the time to look at all of his options on his AR tests.
My little guy I have been working with was absent today. This boy really needs our help, but he has to be present and a desire to learn. We can only go so far to instill that desire, he has to have some in his own life. I want to work with him everytime I see him but he has so many other subjects in which to complete assignments. I fear that he does not understand any of the assingments he is completing. Hopefully, tomorrow he will be there and we can try to pick up again.
My fourth graders are starting time in their math lesson. This will be somewhat of an easy lesson for them. I am concerned with them keeping hours, minutes, and seconds seperated. They have understood that the line graph we have been using to track our local temperature is a graph to show change in time. This could be a help for them in their time lesson. Hopefully all four students will be there tomorrow. One of them will have some makeup work to do, but we can get him caught up if it is not too much longer. We will see what happens tomorrow.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Monday, Day Twenty
Wow, this is the twentieth day of doing this. That is pretty amazing to me. Today I only had two of my four students present. Luckily one of them was the one that was absent when we did the line graph lesson. So I sat with him for a little while and discussed line graphs and then he completed his assignment. The other one that was present is my star pupil. He looked over the study guide that I made for them and decided he was ready to take the test. It worked out well because he will not be there on Tuesday when I plan to give the quiz. It does not work out well for the two that were absent, I am not sure if they can look at the study guide and score an 85% as he did. We need to get through all of this because we are coming up on a lesson in time. The students are pretty good at schedules and such, so I don't think this will be a difficult lesson for them.
My little guy that fell is apparently fine. He was not taken to the doctor at all. He was seen jumping on a trampoline that afternoon he left early. Lately, we have been working with him on sight words. As I stated before the child does not even recognize most letters or numbers. My ST has a PowerPoint that he has created were he can flash a word on the screen and let the children try to pronounce. I thought it was a nice tool. He printed out a portion of the words for my little guy to take home and practice. We will see if he really does practice them. It does not seem that he is getting much practice with the numbers. The parents did return my letter agreeing to help, but you know how that goes.
I spoke with the principal about my idea for my leadership component. I told him I could do student web pages, extracurricular activities pages, or help the teachers get their web pages up and running. I have told him that I could do this on Tuesdays. He said the person in charge of the Century 21 project (their after school program) is gone until next week to a training. So I need to make a note of what I would like to do and he will speak to her about the funding and such to see if it is possible. He thought it was a good idea. The web page for the extracurricular activities would not need to be part of the after school program and I am not sure he understood that but we will see what happens. I am excited about this.
Soon I will taking on the third grade Language Arts lessons. I have been looking over the teachers manual and watching what my ST does with each lesson. This will exciting. I enjoy reading and this will give me the opportunity to teach the students to take more aware from what they read than just the words and phonics they learn. Most of the students don't like to read and only do it because they have to. It is a requirement in my ST's class that student read three books per week for AR. One easy, one middle range, and one hard. This could be fun. I want to develop crafts for them to hold their interest. They enjoy printing pictures to color and cutout. I can build on this I think.
My little guy that fell is apparently fine. He was not taken to the doctor at all. He was seen jumping on a trampoline that afternoon he left early. Lately, we have been working with him on sight words. As I stated before the child does not even recognize most letters or numbers. My ST has a PowerPoint that he has created were he can flash a word on the screen and let the children try to pronounce. I thought it was a nice tool. He printed out a portion of the words for my little guy to take home and practice. We will see if he really does practice them. It does not seem that he is getting much practice with the numbers. The parents did return my letter agreeing to help, but you know how that goes.
I spoke with the principal about my idea for my leadership component. I told him I could do student web pages, extracurricular activities pages, or help the teachers get their web pages up and running. I have told him that I could do this on Tuesdays. He said the person in charge of the Century 21 project (their after school program) is gone until next week to a training. So I need to make a note of what I would like to do and he will speak to her about the funding and such to see if it is possible. He thought it was a good idea. The web page for the extracurricular activities would not need to be part of the after school program and I am not sure he understood that but we will see what happens. I am excited about this.
Soon I will taking on the third grade Language Arts lessons. I have been looking over the teachers manual and watching what my ST does with each lesson. This will exciting. I enjoy reading and this will give me the opportunity to teach the students to take more aware from what they read than just the words and phonics they learn. Most of the students don't like to read and only do it because they have to. It is a requirement in my ST's class that student read three books per week for AR. One easy, one middle range, and one hard. This could be fun. I want to develop crafts for them to hold their interest. They enjoy printing pictures to color and cutout. I can build on this I think.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Friday, Day nineteen
Today was a very mixed up day. It started out just fine. We worked with the third grade on their place value and operation recognition in math. They are beginning to understand. My ST and I discussed me taking on their language arts lessons. I am excited about that. I have to redo my unit so if I find something in that I may do it on language arts instead of the fourth grade math.
My ST and I also discussed what I could do for my leadership plan. The school has a wonderful after school program that most of the time I cannot participate. But there is one night I am guaranteed not to be scheduled to work. That is the night we have our chat session. This could work for me because the program only runs until 5 or 5:30 and our chat is not until 8. I had some ideas but I have to run them across the principal for approval and input. I enjoy using technology so I was debating about helping students create their own web pages, or getting the teachers web pages up and running, or the extracurricular activities the school provides have no web site either. There are lots of options there, I just need to speak to the principal and see what he thinks is best.
We did not get to anything with the fourth grade. The classroom teacher was called out of the school for something and we had to sit with the class for the rest of the day. It was too difficult to try to do what we wanted so we just followed her plans for the rest of the day. The students are reading "Tanya's Reunion" so we put it on tape and student's followed along. It was not so bad. I stayed in the back of the room helping the third graders with a social studies test. And that was all we got accomplished today.
My ST and I also discussed what I could do for my leadership plan. The school has a wonderful after school program that most of the time I cannot participate. But there is one night I am guaranteed not to be scheduled to work. That is the night we have our chat session. This could work for me because the program only runs until 5 or 5:30 and our chat is not until 8. I had some ideas but I have to run them across the principal for approval and input. I enjoy using technology so I was debating about helping students create their own web pages, or getting the teachers web pages up and running, or the extracurricular activities the school provides have no web site either. There are lots of options there, I just need to speak to the principal and see what he thinks is best.
We did not get to anything with the fourth grade. The classroom teacher was called out of the school for something and we had to sit with the class for the rest of the day. It was too difficult to try to do what we wanted so we just followed her plans for the rest of the day. The students are reading "Tanya's Reunion" so we put it on tape and student's followed along. It was not so bad. I stayed in the back of the room helping the third graders with a social studies test. And that was all we got accomplished today.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Thursday, Day eighteen
Today was a big day. I had my first observation. Everything went very well despite how nervous I was. I had a really great lesson plan on paper. But when i got to teaching, I forgot a few things. One that I know I forgot was to make my lesson connection with real world events. We had a lesson on line graphs and I had intended to discuss line graphs that could be done to show some of our football players actions. I don't think I mentioned this at all. But nervousness will do that to you. My professor was a delight. I had never met her and she made every attempt to make me feel at ease. I can't believe I forgot that; I had went over it in my head so many times. But I'll get it next time. I am very happy with my review, I hope the others go this well.
The students were wonderful today. In our lesson they were assigned an online exercise. Many of them do not do much with email except read it. Today's lesson was a lot more than just reading and they did so well. I am very proud of them. We did our normal review of each graph and I feel they have really grasped this lesson. I hope to test them probably Monday. We did not have time for a proper review and I won't test them until I can do that. My ST is such a delight to be in the classroom with. He helps and encourages me all the way.
Normally at the 2pm class is when I can work with my little guy using the TOUCH math. Today he had some science work to catch up and we were to work after that. But he was very sick today and did not have the energy to hold his head up. We contacted the nurse and he went to see her. Just a couple of minutes after that my ST was called to the office. After a while he finally told us that he had fell off the slide at recess and just wasn't feeling well. He was complaining that it was hard to stand up or even hold his head up. They were trying to contact his parents to pick him up because we were all very concerned. The ST ending up taking him home. I hope they will take him to the hospital and have everything checked out. I am very worried about him. Even if everything checks out from the fall, I am sure he probably won't be there tomorrow. He was very sick. He is my buddy though, he likes to look at Cabela's magazines with me. He has big dreams and high hopes.
During third grade math the ST and I noticed something. These kids were confusing the operations of addition and subtraction. And they were not sure of what to do with the extra digit in a problem such as 73 + 65. Since there was only ones and tens, that's all they were writing down. So there answer would be 38 instead of 138. This is something we will be tackling tomorrow morning. A problem such as 75 - 63 was also answered as 38. We have our work cut out, but that is why we are here. I am loving this. There is a teachable moment everywhere you look.
The students were wonderful today. In our lesson they were assigned an online exercise. Many of them do not do much with email except read it. Today's lesson was a lot more than just reading and they did so well. I am very proud of them. We did our normal review of each graph and I feel they have really grasped this lesson. I hope to test them probably Monday. We did not have time for a proper review and I won't test them until I can do that. My ST is such a delight to be in the classroom with. He helps and encourages me all the way.
Normally at the 2pm class is when I can work with my little guy using the TOUCH math. Today he had some science work to catch up and we were to work after that. But he was very sick today and did not have the energy to hold his head up. We contacted the nurse and he went to see her. Just a couple of minutes after that my ST was called to the office. After a while he finally told us that he had fell off the slide at recess and just wasn't feeling well. He was complaining that it was hard to stand up or even hold his head up. They were trying to contact his parents to pick him up because we were all very concerned. The ST ending up taking him home. I hope they will take him to the hospital and have everything checked out. I am very worried about him. Even if everything checks out from the fall, I am sure he probably won't be there tomorrow. He was very sick. He is my buddy though, he likes to look at Cabela's magazines with me. He has big dreams and high hopes.
During third grade math the ST and I noticed something. These kids were confusing the operations of addition and subtraction. And they were not sure of what to do with the extra digit in a problem such as 73 + 65. Since there was only ones and tens, that's all they were writing down. So there answer would be 38 instead of 138. This is something we will be tackling tomorrow morning. A problem such as 75 - 63 was also answered as 38. We have our work cut out, but that is why we are here. I am loving this. There is a teachable moment everywhere you look.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Wednesday, Day seventeen
I have fallen behind in my posting here. I will not try to catch all of it up; I will instead try to recap things here and then move on. Student J seems to be trying but his diagnosis will still peak out and my ST is very good at pulling him back. There are times that you just can't . It seems the later in the day we ask him to write the worst it gets. He truly hates to write and is struggling. He wants to do well, just seems that at times he cannot win over his issues.
My students are doing so well with the data and graphing. They were supposed to perform a survey for in class use but they did not. We supplemented data and have move on. They have put their data into frequency tables, line plots, stem-and-leaf plots, and bar graphs. Students were having a lot of trouble keeping the different types of graphs straight. Now before each lesson I have created a copy of each type of graph that we have completed and I have a series of questions for each one. The first question for each of the graphs is "what type of graph is this". They are doing much better with the terminology now. We have also completed double bar graphs. Using different data of course, I had the students to actually complete the example that I use to test their knowledge before the new lesson.
I have given them the test over the data section and they did very well. Memorization is an issue with all the diagnosis competing in the classroom, but they are getting there. One of my students has real test anxiety. She tries so hard, just confuses things because of the anxiety. We are working with her to bring her out of that shell. Her test score was not as good as I would like it to be but she is trying to understand and when it clicks you can see it.
Tomorrow is my first observation. I am of course very nervous but it will be fine I think. We are ready for line graphs. I am concerned that the students will be confused because of line plots and line graph. I think I have a way to keep these separated in their knowledge. We will be doing an ongoing line graph to track our local high temperatures. I plan to have the students plot the temperature each day. I think this will help to keep everything straight. Also the students will go to the computer and in their email they will find a link to complete a graph online that they can email to me. This will be a lot of fun for them I think; they love anything to do with the computer. After this lesson we will be ready for a unit exam. I feel they will do much better than the last time. The review of each type of graph seems to be working very well.
My students are doing so well with the data and graphing. They were supposed to perform a survey for in class use but they did not. We supplemented data and have move on. They have put their data into frequency tables, line plots, stem-and-leaf plots, and bar graphs. Students were having a lot of trouble keeping the different types of graphs straight. Now before each lesson I have created a copy of each type of graph that we have completed and I have a series of questions for each one. The first question for each of the graphs is "what type of graph is this". They are doing much better with the terminology now. We have also completed double bar graphs. Using different data of course, I had the students to actually complete the example that I use to test their knowledge before the new lesson.
I have given them the test over the data section and they did very well. Memorization is an issue with all the diagnosis competing in the classroom, but they are getting there. One of my students has real test anxiety. She tries so hard, just confuses things because of the anxiety. We are working with her to bring her out of that shell. Her test score was not as good as I would like it to be but she is trying to understand and when it clicks you can see it.
Tomorrow is my first observation. I am of course very nervous but it will be fine I think. We are ready for line graphs. I am concerned that the students will be confused because of line plots and line graph. I think I have a way to keep these separated in their knowledge. We will be doing an ongoing line graph to track our local high temperatures. I plan to have the students plot the temperature each day. I think this will help to keep everything straight. Also the students will go to the computer and in their email they will find a link to complete a graph online that they can email to me. This will be a lot of fun for them I think; they love anything to do with the computer. After this lesson we will be ready for a unit exam. I feel they will do much better than the last time. The review of each type of graph seems to be working very well.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Tuesday, Day Eleven
Today we started our new lesson in math. We will be covering data and graphing. This will also be my unit in my portfolio. The students are required to complete a survey of their friends and family. I had intended on them using 'favorite color' but they instead wanted to do 'favorite sport'. Perhaps their decision is because I used their football team in the survey we completed in class. I expect good results from this excercise and it is something we will use throughout this unit. The students will eventually transfer their survey results to a frequency table.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Monday, Day Ten
Today was an interesting day. We retaught the fourth grade math then retested. This time they did well. Finally we could move on. We are now discussing frequency tables. I have the students performing their own surveys so that we can learn different things about the data. I bought them all notebooks for writing math terms. I type the term and definition out for them but I still require them to write them in their notebooks. It always helps me to remember things if I write them down so we will try that for a while. I am just debating if they should also write concepts in the notebook. I have told them before a test they could take the notebooks home with them to study.
We had a real discipline problem today in the third grade class. Student J did not want to do any writing in his workbook. My ST asked him to "please keep working there is a lot of material they needed to cover". J just did not want to do anything. He is EBD, but he is scary to the other students. Once he gets into a mood he gets what the students call "freaky looking". Some of the students are actually frightened by him, they will move away when they see his face turn "freaky looking". My ST was trying to ignore him during teaching but it eventually became impossible. J was warned that a call would be placed to his parents he mellowed for just a moment, then he tried to rip his workbook in half. My ST finally told him that was it just get out of the classroom. J thought he could open his book and all would be well, but the ST told him it was too late now. At this point I thought of our reading in Love & Logic (Fay & Funk, 1995). We were just reading about disicpline issues and one recourse was to move the student to another classroom. That is what I thought was going on here. It was not that. J waited outside until my ST finished the thought he was working on. Then the ST went outside the door to speak to him. I don't know exactly what was said but I was told a few things after the rest of the class left. My ST told him that he does not like to write misconduct slips because it makes it harder on the student (at home and at school), but he would if necessary. J agreed to linger in the hall until he could collect himself and be a productive part of the class. After standing in the hall for about 5-7 minutes he quietly knocked on the door. The ST teacher motioned him in and he was fine. The rest of the day went just fine for him.
My third grader that we are working with TOUCH math on finished all his work and was given computer time. We have found a game online where the students can practice their multiplication tables while washing cars and they eventually end up in a race. When I approached him he was just clicking answers until he got the right one. I pulled out the numbers and made him count to tell me what the multiplication problem was. We made some progress but he was getting frustrated because he could not recognize the numbers and know the answers right off. He is doing better, we will keep working with it and see how it goes. Today, I plan to send a letter home to the parents along with the TOUCH materials to ask for assistance. The parents can be a great help if they will do it with him regularly.
We had a real discipline problem today in the third grade class. Student J did not want to do any writing in his workbook. My ST asked him to "please keep working there is a lot of material they needed to cover". J just did not want to do anything. He is EBD, but he is scary to the other students. Once he gets into a mood he gets what the students call "freaky looking". Some of the students are actually frightened by him, they will move away when they see his face turn "freaky looking". My ST was trying to ignore him during teaching but it eventually became impossible. J was warned that a call would be placed to his parents he mellowed for just a moment, then he tried to rip his workbook in half. My ST finally told him that was it just get out of the classroom. J thought he could open his book and all would be well, but the ST told him it was too late now. At this point I thought of our reading in Love & Logic (Fay & Funk, 1995). We were just reading about disicpline issues and one recourse was to move the student to another classroom. That is what I thought was going on here. It was not that. J waited outside until my ST finished the thought he was working on. Then the ST went outside the door to speak to him. I don't know exactly what was said but I was told a few things after the rest of the class left. My ST told him that he does not like to write misconduct slips because it makes it harder on the student (at home and at school), but he would if necessary. J agreed to linger in the hall until he could collect himself and be a productive part of the class. After standing in the hall for about 5-7 minutes he quietly knocked on the door. The ST teacher motioned him in and he was fine. The rest of the day went just fine for him.
My third grader that we are working with TOUCH math on finished all his work and was given computer time. We have found a game online where the students can practice their multiplication tables while washing cars and they eventually end up in a race. When I approached him he was just clicking answers until he got the right one. I pulled out the numbers and made him count to tell me what the multiplication problem was. We made some progress but he was getting frustrated because he could not recognize the numbers and know the answers right off. He is doing better, we will keep working with it and see how it goes. Today, I plan to send a letter home to the parents along with the TOUCH materials to ask for assistance. The parents can be a great help if they will do it with him regularly.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Friday, Day Nine
Today was frustrating. We retested the students yet again. My ST told me that some of the students are just trying me to see what they can get away with. He said that because some of them did not even number their papers, they only wrote the answers down. I understand that it is normal for a student to test a new teacher but I have other thoughts. I am wondering if we shouldn't reteach instead of retest. It seems that only one of the four have really grasped the concept and I hate to keep retesting if they just don't get it. I am going to speak to my ST about this idea.
One of these fourth graders is a real cut-up. There are times that he is disrupting the class he is cutting up so much. In our reading we discussed "Dealing with kids who feed off each other"(Fay & Funk, 1995). This is my token feeder. Once he gets on a roll, the other boys will follow. The option of moving to another class is probably not possible in this case. Divide and conquer is however an option worth looking into. Even though the room is small and their are only four students I think I can still make this work. Each student has their favorite place to sit or lay in the floor. That's how I could divide and conquer; by letting them not sit in their favorite places where he can disrupt the other students. But all students love the computer. That is good, but if they are not grasping what they need to pass this test, then perhaps I should shut down their computer time so they are not distracted (this is not the only class they have computer time in). Given that all of these students are EBD, I must tread lightly. I will speak to my ST and get his opinions on the separation of the jokester.
I assisted several students with AR testing today. One that really stuck in my mind was a fifth grader that was taking a practice quiz. He failed the quiz five times. At that point my ST told him to hold on and he would help him. It was my opinion that he should reread the book, but we will see what happened after school.
My third grader that is working with TOUCH math is doing better at recognizing his numbers. Something I have noticed when he writes he does it letter by letter. If the ST writes a word on the board and tells the students to write it down, this student has no concept of what he is writing. It is just letters to him. If you give him a hint and he has heard the word, he can tell you what it is. I really want to help this little guy and intend to find a way to do it.
One of these fourth graders is a real cut-up. There are times that he is disrupting the class he is cutting up so much. In our reading we discussed "Dealing with kids who feed off each other"(Fay & Funk, 1995). This is my token feeder. Once he gets on a roll, the other boys will follow. The option of moving to another class is probably not possible in this case. Divide and conquer is however an option worth looking into. Even though the room is small and their are only four students I think I can still make this work. Each student has their favorite place to sit or lay in the floor. That's how I could divide and conquer; by letting them not sit in their favorite places where he can disrupt the other students. But all students love the computer. That is good, but if they are not grasping what they need to pass this test, then perhaps I should shut down their computer time so they are not distracted (this is not the only class they have computer time in). Given that all of these students are EBD, I must tread lightly. I will speak to my ST and get his opinions on the separation of the jokester.
I assisted several students with AR testing today. One that really stuck in my mind was a fifth grader that was taking a practice quiz. He failed the quiz five times. At that point my ST told him to hold on and he would help him. It was my opinion that he should reread the book, but we will see what happened after school.
My third grader that is working with TOUCH math is doing better at recognizing his numbers. Something I have noticed when he writes he does it letter by letter. If the ST writes a word on the board and tells the students to write it down, this student has no concept of what he is writing. It is just letters to him. If you give him a hint and he has heard the word, he can tell you what it is. I really want to help this little guy and intend to find a way to do it.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Day Eight
Today I gave the students their chapter quiz. Yesterday was a refresher for them and today it did not appear to help them very much. It was kind of frustrating because I know that these kids know this material. Focusing is a big issue in our class. We are always reminding them of the task at hand, which I expected. But today the students wanted me to work every problem on the quiz as an example and I refused. The ones we did do as examples some did not even answer on their quiz. My ST and I had a long discussion about whether to retest or let it go. I told him I felt strongly that they could do better. We decided to go ahead with the full unit exam. He and I are confident they can do well if we only keep the distractions to a minimum. I was hoping for good quiz scores and we could have had a day they could play math games on the computers (they love to do that) but that is the way it is.
My work with the third grader and TOUCH math is going very well. We have a thirty minute block where these students come in to work on random assignments they need help with. After he finished his necessary assignments he wanted to play the math game on the computer. During this game he could tell me some of the numbers and when he stumbled we counted them with the TOUCH math. We used a multiplication game but I had him using multiples of 0. I did not want him too concerned with the multiplication so he could concentrate on the numbers themselves. This would also build his confidence, I am finding that he does not get much of that if he is not at school. He is doing better in just the short time we have been doing it. I did not have a chance to talk to my ST about sending a letter home requesting assistance in using the TOUCH math at home today. The school just got their grading system online usable and he was very busy with that.
Between student teaching and working full time at the Inn, I have not kept up with my reading. I do have some time this weekend to hopefully get caught up. I must get my lesson plans done also, but I think I can get it done. Tomorrow could be interesting when I tell the students we will be having the unit test. I expect they will be upset but I know they can do better and I have greater expectations than the 65's I saw today. We will see how they respond.
Also, the fourth grade students took a quiz over "The sinking of the Titanic" they had as an ebook through capstone libraries. This library is a great tool for these students they can associate movement in the pictures to the words that are being said. It is an Accelerated Reader book so it worked out very well for them. They all did very well on the AR test, I think the lowest score was an 80. My ST and I were very pleased and the students really enjoy the books in this format. Teachers at my school can access around 116 books and there are more ebooks in the library to view. I think this is really helpful for the students. We did a short reading like this for the third grade but they had great difficulty keeping up with the words. We discussed backing the reading level down a little until they are used to keeping up.
It was a good day, even though we do have to retest. The students were attentive and enthusiatic but distractions did prove to be too much during the testing period. But we will get it.
My work with the third grader and TOUCH math is going very well. We have a thirty minute block where these students come in to work on random assignments they need help with. After he finished his necessary assignments he wanted to play the math game on the computer. During this game he could tell me some of the numbers and when he stumbled we counted them with the TOUCH math. We used a multiplication game but I had him using multiples of 0. I did not want him too concerned with the multiplication so he could concentrate on the numbers themselves. This would also build his confidence, I am finding that he does not get much of that if he is not at school. He is doing better in just the short time we have been doing it. I did not have a chance to talk to my ST about sending a letter home requesting assistance in using the TOUCH math at home today. The school just got their grading system online usable and he was very busy with that.
Between student teaching and working full time at the Inn, I have not kept up with my reading. I do have some time this weekend to hopefully get caught up. I must get my lesson plans done also, but I think I can get it done. Tomorrow could be interesting when I tell the students we will be having the unit test. I expect they will be upset but I know they can do better and I have greater expectations than the 65's I saw today. We will see how they respond.
Also, the fourth grade students took a quiz over "The sinking of the Titanic" they had as an ebook through capstone libraries. This library is a great tool for these students they can associate movement in the pictures to the words that are being said. It is an Accelerated Reader book so it worked out very well for them. They all did very well on the AR test, I think the lowest score was an 80. My ST and I were very pleased and the students really enjoy the books in this format. Teachers at my school can access around 116 books and there are more ebooks in the library to view. I think this is really helpful for the students. We did a short reading like this for the third grade but they had great difficulty keeping up with the words. We discussed backing the reading level down a little until they are used to keeping up.
It was a good day, even though we do have to retest. The students were attentive and enthusiatic but distractions did prove to be too much during the testing period. But we will get it.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Day Seven
Today was a chapter review for my 4th graders. The students will have a unit test tomorrow and I wanted to make sure they were ready. It did not turn out as I expected. The students almost felt like they were looking at new material when they saw the quiz. I gave them a few minutes to work alone filling in what they know.
Most of the students did very well on the terms that were introduced. Catch words triggered the definition of the term for them. I did not want them to be concerned about the spelling of the words so I gave them a list of the words they just had to fill in the blanks. Each sentence began with a term they chose and they searched the sentence for the words that caught their memory and made that relationship.
When it came to the rest of the test the students were almost lost. They wanted to put random numbers in the table instead of following the rule. Students were instructed to find the rule in some tables and given the rule in others. The given rule seemed to be more difficult for them. The money problems again were not an issue for them. Finding what the variable was after reading word did not seem to be a problem for them either. Knowing the relationship of <, >, and = was not a problem.
I started working with my 3rd grader today using TOUCH math. Today we only got through the numbers once. We have not progressed to adding by using this strategy yet. Tomorrow I plan to send a letter to the parents to inform them of what I am doing and how it is done. I am hoping they will consider helping me by using and encouraging this at home. I believe this will be a great benefit to him because he tries so hard to guess the right number. If I can help him to recognize the numbers I believe his math grade will improve.
TOUCH math: http://www.touchmath.com
Most of the students did very well on the terms that were introduced. Catch words triggered the definition of the term for them. I did not want them to be concerned about the spelling of the words so I gave them a list of the words they just had to fill in the blanks. Each sentence began with a term they chose and they searched the sentence for the words that caught their memory and made that relationship.
When it came to the rest of the test the students were almost lost. They wanted to put random numbers in the table instead of following the rule. Students were instructed to find the rule in some tables and given the rule in others. The given rule seemed to be more difficult for them. The money problems again were not an issue for them. Finding what the variable was after reading word did not seem to be a problem for them either. Knowing the relationship of <, >, and = was not a problem.
I started working with my 3rd grader today using TOUCH math. Today we only got through the numbers once. We have not progressed to adding by using this strategy yet. Tomorrow I plan to send a letter to the parents to inform them of what I am doing and how it is done. I am hoping they will consider helping me by using and encouraging this at home. I believe this will be a great benefit to him because he tries so hard to guess the right number. If I can help him to recognize the numbers I believe his math grade will improve.
TOUCH math: http://www.touchmath.com
Day Six
Tuesday seemed to be an easy day for the students. We had a lesson on money and equations. The majority of our lesson focused on money. I had went to the point of requiring the students to make a money chart for reference during our lesson. To my surprise they really didn't need this but it did reinforce their concept of money values.
I brought play money coins (with some real in it because the package came with no nickels at all and very few pennies) for the students to work with. The student's knew the values right off the bat. They could also tell me how many ways we could make 75 cents. They could count the value of the coins and tell me when it was equal and when it was not. They could also tell me why it was not equal.
We then moved to equations that did not deal with money. At first when the students saw that 4 + 1 = 5 and 2 + 3 = 5, there were no problems. When they saw 4 + 1 = 2 + 3, it took a minute but it clicked, they were equal. They understood that to keep them equal they had to add the same value to each side of the equal sign. This became an easy lesson for them.
I brought play money coins (with some real in it because the package came with no nickels at all and very few pennies) for the students to work with. The student's knew the values right off the bat. They could also tell me how many ways we could make 75 cents. They could count the value of the coins and tell me when it was equal and when it was not. They could also tell me why it was not equal.
We then moved to equations that did not deal with money. At first when the students saw that 4 + 1 = 5 and 2 + 3 = 5, there were no problems. When they saw 4 + 1 = 2 + 3, it took a minute but it clicked, they were equal. They understood that to keep them equal they had to add the same value to each side of the equal sign. This became an easy lesson for them.
Day Five
Monday was truly an exciting day for both me and the students. We had a lesson on input/output tables where the students had to find the rule. These students have worked on patterns before and it was not hard for most of them to pick out the pattern by the numbers given. I had made flash cards for the students so we could build a table. One side had Input and a number and the other was Output and a number. The students took turns writing the numbers in the correct column when they revealed what and where it was supposed to be. This was not difficult for them. We did two tables on the board and then the students completed assignments in their workbooks.
At times the students seemed confused by the workbook exercises. I had to remind them this is what we had just done. We worked our way through a few of them and I assigned the rest for them to complete on their own. Staying on task is an issue, but once they are focused and have searched through what we did on the board I think they'll be fine.
I spoke to my ST about the TOUCH math for my one 3rd grader. He thinks it would be very beneficial to him. Most of the numbers he thinks he knows but is very hesitant to respond. More often than not he is not correct about the number but he tries very hard.
We are making some schedule changes because right now we have a class right at the going home time when there is bus calls and messages over the intercom. This is distracting to the students and frustrating for the ST. He has advised me that we will be changing some things to make his time with the students more beneficial.
At times the students seemed confused by the workbook exercises. I had to remind them this is what we had just done. We worked our way through a few of them and I assigned the rest for them to complete on their own. Staying on task is an issue, but once they are focused and have searched through what we did on the board I think they'll be fine.
I spoke to my ST about the TOUCH math for my one 3rd grader. He thinks it would be very beneficial to him. Most of the numbers he thinks he knows but is very hesitant to respond. More often than not he is not correct about the number but he tries very hard.
We are making some schedule changes because right now we have a class right at the going home time when there is bus calls and messages over the intercom. This is distracting to the students and frustrating for the ST. He has advised me that we will be changing some things to make his time with the students more beneficial.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Saturday
Even though we did not have school today, I want to recap this week. It was a real whirlwind and it was a short week (Labor Day). The students could feel the toll of the week by Friday, but I love to watch them.
They try so hard to do everything right. If more students were concerned that everything was right on target as to the end result that would be so great. These students don't always get everything right, but you can watch them while they work and they are constantly thinking. They seem to be always trying to remember things, because they recognize a key word or something that makes them know it's familiar. It is a true joy to watch. I am loving this.
They try so hard to do everything right. If more students were concerned that everything was right on target as to the end result that would be so great. These students don't always get everything right, but you can watch them while they work and they are constantly thinking. They seem to be always trying to remember things, because they recognize a key word or something that makes them know it's familiar. It is a true joy to watch. I am loving this.
Day Four
This is a late post. My computer actually crashed on Thursday while I was at school. We tried to fix it by purchasing a new power supply but the next morning we again had nothing on the computer. Unfortunately, I had no time to mess with it so on Friday we purchased a new computer so I could easily continue my schooling, then I had to go to work at the Inn. So I am late in getting this blog entered.
We have one student in the third grade that is still struggling with his numbers. He is expected to perform mathematical function, but he struggles alot. I am going to speak to my ST about using TOUCH math with him. I think it would be a great help for him. Then we might be able to catch him up with the class.
I taught my lesson today to the fourth grade. We covered using variables. It took them a little while to understand that the variable could be any number and that any letter could be used to represent the variable. Once we got over those humps they knew what it was all about. I designed a Tic-Tac-Toe equation game for them that went over very well. We will see on Monday how much they retained when we review before our next lesson. My ST liked the way I incorporated the students birth dates into our lesson.
I had great fun doing this lesson with the kids. I also had many opportunies today to co-teach with my ST and I enjoyed that also. The kids are really warming up to me and are not afraid to ask for help at all now. That is a nice feeling, because that is what I am here for. Even though the day started out pretty bad, it wound up being a good day.
We have one student in the third grade that is still struggling with his numbers. He is expected to perform mathematical function, but he struggles alot. I am going to speak to my ST about using TOUCH math with him. I think it would be a great help for him. Then we might be able to catch him up with the class.
I taught my lesson today to the fourth grade. We covered using variables. It took them a little while to understand that the variable could be any number and that any letter could be used to represent the variable. Once we got over those humps they knew what it was all about. I designed a Tic-Tac-Toe equation game for them that went over very well. We will see on Monday how much they retained when we review before our next lesson. My ST liked the way I incorporated the students birth dates into our lesson.
I had great fun doing this lesson with the kids. I also had many opportunies today to co-teach with my ST and I enjoyed that also. The kids are really warming up to me and are not afraid to ask for help at all now. That is a nice feeling, because that is what I am here for. Even though the day started out pretty bad, it wound up being a good day.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Day Three
Today was another catch up day. As students are nearing the end of their units we are in need of grades to post. We did a lot of testing today in math, social studies, science and AR. I could tell it was nearing the end of the week today. The students were getting more tired than normal and did not want to complete assignments in a timely manner. We did work through the majority of the assignments and have only a few left for tomorrow.
I spent a great deal of time completing my lesson plan. After I rested everything seemed to click. I am excited and concerned about my teaching tomorrow since I know going in the students are demonstrating the fatigue of a long week; even though this is a short week for them. I think the lesson will be fine either way. I am looking forward to it.
I had one student that got upset with me today. He wanted to play on the computer while the teacher was giving instruction for upcoming assignment. He got upset because I would not assist him in signing in so he could play brain pop. He stubbed up for a short period and did not want to participate in class when I called his name. I just let it go and before long he was participating without being called upon.
I do have to brag on my ST. He is teaching his 4th grade homonyms. A trick he told them to keep peek and peak straight in their mind was, if you take a peek at something you see it. The 'ee' clicked in their brains and I could see in their eyes they understood. I thought that was very clever.
I spent a great deal of time completing my lesson plan. After I rested everything seemed to click. I am excited and concerned about my teaching tomorrow since I know going in the students are demonstrating the fatigue of a long week; even though this is a short week for them. I think the lesson will be fine either way. I am looking forward to it.
I had one student that got upset with me today. He wanted to play on the computer while the teacher was giving instruction for upcoming assignment. He got upset because I would not assist him in signing in so he could play brain pop. He stubbed up for a short period and did not want to participate in class when I called his name. I just let it go and before long he was participating without being called upon.
I do have to brag on my ST. He is teaching his 4th grade homonyms. A trick he told them to keep peek and peak straight in their mind was, if you take a peek at something you see it. The 'ee' clicked in their brains and I could see in their eyes they understood. I thought that was very clever.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Day Two
Today was my second day of student teaching. I am still observing to get to know the students, but I did a lot with them today. We had many Accelerated Reading test to complete. The students knew the answers by sight words they could pick out of the answers. Even the ones where there were two answers with the one sight word, they recognized another word in the correct answer. We had social studies quizzes that the students needed help with and language arts quizzes. The students would read the language arts short story with my assistance and answer the questions I asked about the story.
I am attempting to write my first real lesson plan to teach Friday. I am struggling, I am not sure if it is my nerves or just being tired. This is not that complicated but I have a habit of making things more complicated than they really are. That may be what I am doing here. I am sure I will get it, I just need to remind myself to breathe.
I attended a teacher's meeting today with my ST. It was very interesting to listen to all the teachers interact. Issues were presented and some were solved and some needed further investigation. The principal lead the meeting and the teachers interacted with him very respectfully. I enjoyed this meeting. I am planning to go to their upcoming Professional Development Meetings also. I really enjoyed this meeting and am looking forward to more.
I am attempting to write my first real lesson plan to teach Friday. I am struggling, I am not sure if it is my nerves or just being tired. This is not that complicated but I have a habit of making things more complicated than they really are. That may be what I am doing here. I am sure I will get it, I just need to remind myself to breathe.
I attended a teacher's meeting today with my ST. It was very interesting to listen to all the teachers interact. Issues were presented and some were solved and some needed further investigation. The principal lead the meeting and the teachers interacted with him very respectfully. I enjoyed this meeting. I am planning to go to their upcoming Professional Development Meetings also. I really enjoyed this meeting and am looking forward to more.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
First Day
Today was the first day of my journey in student teaching. It was a fairly easy day. I mostly observed what the teacher does and how the students react. My Supervising Teacher (ST) assisted his students with their math and language arts assignments. The third grade was working on math. They are attempting to learn the multiplication facts of three. We discussed how you can add three to the previous answer. Then we discussed how the terms are interchangeable. The students did not understand when the ST simply stated to swap the numbers or when he wrote 3*2=2*3, so I wrote on the board 3*2=6 and directly under that 2*3=6, they saw the number interchanged and went with that and flew. We also made time for some work on their writing portfolios. The students then got to use the computer to play math games to assist in their learning of basic skills. Some of the students actually came to me for help because my ST was busy with another; that was fantastic. These students are like sponges just begging to be drenched. Some of them we must be careful not to overwhelm. But it is so great seeing the students wanting to do well and trying so hard. These students touch your heart so that you just to have to help them in any way you can. I hope to have a lesson plan completed and taught by the weekend. I love to help the students with their math so I think that is what I will focus on. I have had a wonderful day and can't wait for tomorrow.
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