Friday, October 31, 2008

Thursday, Day Thirty-eight

In 3rd grade we did more language arts pages in the students workbook to go along with the theme wrap up. I have created their phonics quiz that they will complete tomorrow. I don't think they'll have too much trouble with it. I did not add a bonus section on this one since it is 25 questions. I am hoping we can finish this and still have time to do the contraction game. I think this would be a great benefit to them.

In 4th grade math we did a lot. We had our lesson on multiplying 3 factors and choosing the right operation. Then students had to go to the computer and complete two assignments from their email. During the multiplication of 3 factors I also touched on PEMDAS because they have that coming. After that we did our post test. I gave them the same test we had as a pretest. This time they liked the test. Then we did our unit quiz. We did all of this because tomorrow is Halloween and they will not have time to much of anything. The school has activites planned and it is going to be hard to get anything done.

I worked with my little guy today. We used just the flashcards. He has become very dependent upon the dots on the numbers. It's ok if he counts the dots when they are not there, but when he can't tell my the number without seeing the dots I'm not sure we are making progress. But I know that we have made progress from were we began. Even though my time is up according to my collaboration plan, I will continue to work with him because I want him to be successful. My ST has noticed that lately he wants to be successful. He works real hard on his hand writing and tries to make sure that he gets everything we ask done. Maybe this is his turn around year.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Wednesday, Day Thirty-seven

I just realized how long this unit is in 4th grade math. Today the students worked with the facts of 11 and 12. Their assignment consisted of them getting an email from me and completing an assignment. They had to finish a multiplication table (11 and 12 products were missing) but as I told them at this point they have done the whole table already. The 11's offered some strategies to introduce. One is when you multiply by a single digit number you just write that number twice. The other is the drop in strategy when using 2 digit numbers. It is really a great tool. All you do is separate the number you are multiplying like 11 x 45, would look like 4 5. Then add the numbers together and drop that sum in the middle 495 and that is your product. It works with any 2 digit number. You may have to carry with certain numbers such as 59. It would be 5 9. Then the sum is 14, so you drop in the 4 and carry the 1. So the product is 649. And it works with some division such as 253/11. You can see that the sum of the first and the last digit equal the middle digit so the quotient is 23. The students caught on to this real well. They had to use the multiplication table they had completed to solve multiplication and division equation with a factor of 12, then the drop-in strategy for equations with a factor of 11.

In 3rd grade we finished up some workbook pages that will help them in their upcoming exam. We will be having a final phonics exam in this class that will include about 25 of the 48 words they have learned. I am only looking to see that they have understood the pattern, so I am only pulling a few words from the list. I still intend to make a contraction game like we did the long i sound. They need a lot of practice with contractions and this would be very helpful to them.

Again time did not allow to work with my little guy. I have made flashcards with numbers on them to see what he can identify just by seeing them. Hopefully tomorrow we can do that. He has come a long way. I do expect that he will be retained but it would be the best for him, to get that extra time to learn.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Tuesday, Day Thirty-six

Today I discovered that we are actually ahead of the regular classrooms in both of my classes. So we spent the 4th grade math period catching up their workbook. Since this is the unit that goes in my portfolio, we have not done much in their workbooks so this was good. This also tested their skills of what they have already been presented with. All of these strategies will be helpful at some point in their future education. We have only two lessons left then we will do a post test, then a unit quiz. They are doing so well with the strategies, I think they'll do well with the test also.

3rd grade language arts was the same story, we are ahead of the class. So we spent today basically studying for the theme wrap up. In this the students will be tested over all the words and phonic patterns they have learned. I am still concerned with their knowledge of contractions. I wonder if I could make a game of them. If I based in on the same principle they used in the long i game it might work. I may do that. That might be the little extra they need.

I did not have time to work with my little guy today. He is doing very well. We need to concentrate on the sounds of letter more now. He can tell me words that start with the letters. He will see 'a' on the flashcard and say 'a...apple'. But I don't think he really remembers the sounds. Even though our time is up we will continue to push forward.

Monday, Day Thirty-Five

Today in 3rd grade language arts we completed our chapter quiz. The students did pretty well with this. We go over everything so that they all have the opportunity to score 100. But if they do not pay attention then it shows in their scores. Today they were only partially paying attention. Although the scores were high, there was only one 100. After this we will have a theme wrap up. This will close out their lessons on traditions.

In 4th grade math we had yet another strategy, using an array. I told the students that I can tell the way they are so into technology I see some of them working in the computer field. I have a degree in computers and we use a lot of arrays. Although the array used in the computer field are not like the ones we used today, the basic understanding of arrays will help them with that. We used blocks to form the concept. This gave them a visual to go along with the written form. After our lesson they had to go to the computer to complete an assignment about arrays. They all did well on that assignment. They are getting very good at running the computer. I am glad of that, because I don't want them behind other students in this field either.

My little guy surprised me today. I gave him a sheet that had just the numbers on it (no points). He could tell me what all the numbers were every time. I am wondering if it is because they were in order. I am going to make flash cards with the number on one side and the number with points on the other side. My two weeks have passed for this collaboration. Although he is doing better, he did not do as well as I hoped. We will continue with the lessons because I feel that he improves with each time we do it.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Friday, Day Thirty-four

Today was a good day. In 3rd grade language arts we had our phonics quiz. The students did very well with that. I always give them a bonus section and seems to be helping a lot. This section forces them to think about the phonic patterns we have studied. I also had the students go to an interactive web site to work on some contractions. They are not doing well in retaining the concept of the contraction. This web site gave them a contraction and they had to choose the correct words that formed the contraction. Scores were not very high on this lesson, I expected much better but the students all seemed distracted today. On a better note, one of the students in this class that struggles with social interaction and hated my card game, asked if we could play. Unfortunately we did not have time and I truly regret that since he wanted to play so badly.

In 4th grade math we solved multiplication and division equations using a number line. This was a fun lesson. It gave the students yet another strategy to solve these equations. That is why I like this unit, it is full of strategies to help the students. Technical difficulties got me again in this lesson. I had typed up the pages needed in the lesson including the worksheet for assessment in a Word 2007 format. The problem is that it is not compatible with 2003, so nothing could read it. So we simply took out a piece of paper and did it by hand. The students did very well with it. Since I couldn't print what I wanted I tried to find something online for the students to work with but that didn't happen. Division was more difficult for them on the number line, but they understood it enough to complete the worksheet. They wanted to just solve the equation which was only worth 1/3 of the points, the major part of the points came from showing the work on the number line. I am proud of them, they did well.

I had never thought about the styles of teaching affecting a student so much. In our reading we studied the helicopter, drill sergeant, and consultant teacher. I knew that the drill sergeant teacher was a tough teacher and students learned but it was almost like forced learning and I often wondered how much was retained. I had never heard of the helicopter, but I have seen it. Teachers that feel that students cannot complete a task themselves, will hover and do the thinking, processing and answering for them. The student only has to copy the answers from a note or write exactly what the teacher says. I want to be the teacher that causes the student to think on their own, come up with their own answers and if they are not correct we can discuss why. The consultant teacher fits me better. My 3rd grade class has a student like "Ben" in our reading. He expects us to do everything for him. He is such a bright boy but hates to write. Orally he can tell me the most perfect answers in language arts or math, but writing it down causes turmoil. We give him every strategy we can think of, but he just truly hates writing. I have been thinking that maybe he could learn to type his answers into a document, but he hates the process of finding the right keys also. We will continue to work with him, but I plan to pull back on the things that I know he could do on his own. It will not benefit him in future classes if I do everything that he is capable of doing.

Friday, October 24, 2008

Thursday, Day Thirty-three

Today was my second observation and Murphy's law was in full swing. Today students were given a strategy of using a multiplication table to solve multiplication and division equations. I had saved a multiplication table on the computer so that we could use the Smart Board to trace the path. Well my picture showed up just fine but I could not get the tools to work at all. So we just went to pencil and paper. It all worked out. The multiplication was not at all a problem. As I have said they have been studying the times table all year, so they knew most of the answers; I just had to get them to trace the path. But then they saw they could also solve division with the table and that was surprising to them. They are really seeing that multiplication and division are inverse operations. Students had to go to the computer to complete an assignment I had made for them and sent in their email. They had to use the highlight function to solve equations using the multiplication table. Some of them got a hold of the table and changed the table dimensions, which created some problem. But they did well with it. One student did not get finished and had to save the document to finish it later. This was a good exercise for them. Anything I can get them doing on the computer I think might give them some type advantage in future classes.

Language arts went well today. Students asked to play our long i game. A couple of them were not too enthusised about it but they still participated. I still thing this is a good thing for all of them. They are learning more about the long i sound and socialization skills. They are doing very well with this spelling pattern. I have enjoyed their enthusiam about the game also.

My little guy is doing very well also. I am thinking I should really remove the points on the numbers. He is becoming very dependent on them. I have a sheet were he writes each number everytime he is assessed. He must tell me what the number is first. He will create the dots on the number first on the ones he is not sure of. His alphabet is doing well also. He still has trouble with the g, h, and q. He tells me that his parents are using the flashcards and numbers I sent home. I believe that they are helping because he is doing very well.

During my observations we had several interruptions other than the Smart Board mishap. One student had just arrived at school because of a doctor's appointment, so we had a parent in the classroom talking with the ST. We had 3 of the 3rd graders that needed assistance, we had various teachers in and out to talk to the ST. Just a lot of distractions. I was very proud of my kids, they stayed focused and understood what was taught and completed the lesson. This is a really good group of kids.

Wednesday, Day Thirty-two

Today we finally got to start our new unit in 4th grade math. I gave the students a pre-test. They were concerned in the beginning because it was a test. I reassured them that this is not a graded test, this is for me to see what kind of background knowledge you have and I can use this to direct my instruction. They were still very concerned. Terminology is still something we are working on. I found out in the last unit if I repeat everything at the beginning of each lesson they will get it. A quick review doesn't disrupt the lesson and it is very helpful. We are studying multiplication and division facts. This lesson will not be difficult since they have learned most of the multiplication tables all ready. This unit gives student a variety of strategies to complete multiplication or division equations. Strategies such as the one used today, inverse operation. Students are used to checking their addition with subtraction and vice versa, so today they understood how division undoes multiplication and serves as a checking device also. I have a fact family bingo game if we have time tomorrow we are going to try it. This game will reinforce their knowledge of what a fact family is and inverse operations. We will see how it goes.

I am really enjoying the 3rd grade Language Arts class. We are studying a story about Indian traditions this week. Students have been working with contractions in the past two lessons, but are still having some difficulty. I remember a website that has an exercise in contractions, I may have the students work on that tomorrow. Today after we finished our lesson we played a card game with the long i sound. I have about 30 long i words, using the spelling pattern we are studying on index cards. It's kind of like go fish. I made each student a list of all the words that are on the cards and they have to ask another student for a matching word with the same spelling pattern as they have. If they find a match they lay down the pair, if not they draw another card. The first student who is out of cards wins. They seem to like it somewhat. Some of my students have social issues and are not very fond of this but they are participating. I think this will reinforce the spelling patterns we have been studying.

My little guy is doing very well with the TOUCH math. He will now count the points if he doesn't know the number without any thing being said. He recognizes 5 numbers without having to count the points. His alphabet recognition is doing better also. He can recongize 20 of the 26 letters and 18 sounds. He consistently missing the letters: g, h, and q. I need to find a way to get past this. He looks forward to our little execise. I am not sure if it is just to get it over or if he really like it. We do talk about different things during our exercise, but I have to be careful that we don't get too far off course. He is doing very well . My ST tells me he can see the difference our work is making.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Tuesday, Day Thirty-one

I was not feeling well this morning, so I did not go to school Today.

Monday, Day Thrity

Today was a catchup day. Some things were left unfinished before we went on fall break, so today was the day to catch them up and move tomorrow. I have one student in my 4th grade class that has yet to complete the chapter quiz and the unit test. We did that today.

In language arts the 3rd grade is going to read about another tradition. This one is about Indians and their tradition. We completed a graphic organizer were the students were looking for main ideas of a page and details to suppport the main idea.

My little guy has too much work to catch up on to pull him aside. That is another project that will have to wait.

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Friday, Day Twenty-Nine

Today was a catch all day. We tried to ensure that all students are caught up on all assignments before they leave. This proved to be very complicated. Our local fire department was putting on a demonstration for the students. It only took about 30 minutes but that means that students brought work from their classroom to get assistance. The 4th grade came in with social studies test and math. Two students that are not in my math class are in my ST language arts class and they needed assistance with the same chapter test that we had just completed. They also had a recess period right in the middle of this. So needless to say we did not get much done. I did not have time to test my one student that was absent either. So when we go back we will have to catch the three of them up. That is not a problem though. Next lesson is my unit for my portfolio, Just the facts: multiplication and division. I think the students will do well with this lesson.

My little guy is doing very well with the flashcards. We did not have time to begin the writing portion we will have to that when we come back. He is recognizing more numbers and letters. He is learning when he doesn't know the number to count the dots. He is making some errors in his counting such as he leaves out three and looks to me for approval when he only makes the beginning sound of a number. He is doing well though. I think I will look at my assessment sheet and the numbers that he continually recognizes I will take away the dots, I know that is 1, 2, and 8. He always seems to know those. He is doing about the same with the alphabet. Although today when he told me the letter he added a symbol. He said 'a - apple' even though there is no apple he remembers being taught that. It seemed to help him a lot so we will continue to do that. The sounds were harder. And it is harder for me to assess him in this area. I am trying to concentrate on the basic sounds, I have found that people say there are anywhere from 44-50 sounds in our language. I am only looking for 29 sounds right now. Some assessments group the 'k' sound with c and k. I understand that but what about c sound that is 's' as in cease or center. I need to make a rubric for the sounds I am looking for this is the only way I will keep up. I am very bad about making an activity and not creating a rubric. That is one of my growth areas in self-assessment worksheet.

In the third grade the ones that were finished with their five times each were given some extra time to work on their symbol project. So some were adding to their symbol and some were completing their assignment. Students presented their symbols to the class and told why this is a representation of them. It went really well. The students that needed to complete their assignment got those down in time to make presentations also. We had a play station, angels, sisters, race tracks, and many others. The students had a great time with this. And I think they really grasped the idea of symbolism. I guess with all the distractions it was a productive day.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Thursday, Day Twenty-eight

Today was a whirlwind. Under the advice of my ST, we are trying to get everything completed today because tomorrow it will be very difficult to get everything done. In Language Arts, students had a phonics quiz and their theme test. I went through both test with them and we had some very good scores. Not all scored a 100, I think the lowest score was an 85 on the theme test. I created the phonics quiz and the students did pretty well with it. There were sentences where they had to insert the word from their spelling list and then I gave them a bonus section. All of their words were listed and they had to circle the 3-letter cluster and underline the unexpected consonant. Most of them used this list to complete their sentences then marked out the word, so to complete the bonus they had to erase that to see the word. The theme test introduced even more words with those consonant patterns and they handled that very well. Tomorrow the students that have completed their 5x each will present their symbol telling how it represents them. That should be fun.

In math, I had one student absent. We went through the retest for chapter seven and they did well. The average of the two test will give them much better test scores. We also had our unit test. This was difficult for some because they had a lot of material to remember. I had given them a bonus section also, the calendar months, where they had to list the month name, number, and how many days it has. Only one student completed the bonus section, I told them that was their loss because it was an extra 10 points on their quiz. The one student who completed it scored 106. I will share these test with the students today just so they can see what they could have made.

My little guy's classroom teacher sent me a note today. She has begun working with him with the TOUCH math also. She had assessed him and sent me the result. Also she wanted me to put the dots in the correct spots so he could recognize them on slips of paper that she is using with him. This is great, at least I am getting help from someone other than myself and my ST. The only problem is that some of the numbers were two-digit numbers. That could work but using the TOUCH math it would look like 2-2 instead of 22. He does not recognize place value as of yet. In my assessment he scored about the same in the recognition of the numbers and one less on the alphabet. He is trying so hard. Tomorrow I may try the written assessment of the numbers, he follows examples pretty well. He will have to tell me what number he is writing and these have no dots on them. This should be a good assessment for him.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Wednesday, Day Twenty-seven

Today, was a typical day. In language arts, I had the third grade catching up in their workbooks. I have one student who is very bright but when I call on her to read aloud, I never know what to expect. There are times she does very well reading and then there are times that she struggles with simple words such as 'words'. I am watching her because I am not sure what is going on there. This class is very early and most of the students are very unresponsive. We struggled through and finished all that we needed. The students had already had a lesson in contractions with my ST, yet they still struggled through the workbook page. Two of them were really on top of it. But most when I asked how do we make a contraction of the two words has and not, would respond with the spelling of has'not. We still have some work to do.

In our reading about motivation I do see some of my students. I have one third grader who is always announcing were she is in her work and asking another student were they are. I believe that is a performance motivation although we are not a class that focuses on "normative grading practices (which imply that only a percentage of students are likely to succeed)" (McKeahie, 2006) and we do provide opportunities for revision and improving written work. She is very competitive amongst her classmates. That is not necessarily a bad thing, it seems to be her motivator. I would like to see all my students perform because of mastery goals. Since all my students have some type of goal in their IEP, motivation to obtain a mastery of the material would benefit them greatly.

Math in the fourth grade was interesting. I gave a quick review so we good test over the chapter about time and it went well. The test was a different story. This makes me feel that I did not teach it very well. My ST has given me many options to develop their understanding. I think I will retest and average those test scores. The students had asked for free time and I told them it depended on when we were finished. That was a mistake. I think they rushed through the test and did not do well. I think next time the answer will be "don't ask when we are in the middle of a lesson".

My little guy was too busy catching up on the work he missed when he left early to work with today. I did however send the set of alphabet flashcards and a letter home with him. He is doing better, in his daily work I will occasionaly ask him about a letter or number and very often he responds with the correct answer. We will get there.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Tuesday, Day Twenty-Six

Today was a lot of fun for the third grade. But before the fun started, the students were assigned the spelling words to be written 5 times each. For each student I created a table with six columns. The first column was just a word list. Part of doing them 5 times each is they must be in alphabetical order. We went through the alphabet and organized the words in the second column as they should be. Some of them were confused at first when the class had determined the first and second word, I circled the room while they wrote. A few of them had simply wrote word exactly were it was in the table. I can see how that can be confusing, I will work on a way to make that more clear for next week. Also, there was one worksheet we completed in their workbook. The students had to read a clue and see a word that rhymed with one of their spelling words. An example would be that "something worn on the wrist match______" and the spelling word is watch. After two of these the students caught on very well. The next exercise wanted them to choose the word from the larger word that contained their spelling word. An example of this would be 'knowing' where the spelling word is 'know'. After these we had a project. Keeping in the theme of their story, I gave each student a colored folder. They were to open it up and with colored glitter glue, create a symbol that represents them. I told them I wanted something that I could look at and know that was _______. They did very well with that. I think Thursday I will have the students present their symbol and tell how it represents them. The students had a lot of fun with this.

My little guy ended up not feeling well and left school early so we did not get to have our 2:00 meeting. I will try again tomorrow. These students always come into the classroom around 7:30 and they practice their cursive writing until it is class time. My guy could tell me what letter he was writing when I asked. I thought that was good.

My fourth grade did not do as well as I thought they would with the calendar. They could read the calendar and knew it was 3 weeks and 2 days between events. They knew there are 7 days in week, 365 days in a year, and 12 months in a year. Only one of them could say the months of the year. None could tell me how many days were in a given month. So I showed them the knuckle way telling how many days were in each month. My ST really enjoyed that and the students could tell me right off how many days. This also helped them remember the names of the months. We then took a quiz over the month names, the number of days in each, and the number of the month. Using the strategy I showed, they did very well. We did cover leap year and all of that also. Today was a very good day, even though they did not complete their personal schedules. This did upset me. I told them this is twice. They did not complete their own surveys (so we made up data) and now this. I also told them that I did not necessarily take a grade on this, because this was an assignment to strengthen what we have been discussing. I also informed them the next one will be for a grade and they will not be permitted to forget it at home or leave their instructions in the classroom; they will get a 0 if that is the case. I don't think I was too hard on them but these are things that will build on the lessons we are doing. We are coming up on relating multiplication and division, so I will have to create something for them to do. I have known teachers that when a student does not complete their assignments throughout the week, they would assign homework over the weekend. I don't want to take their weekend but I do expect it to be done.

Monday, Day Twenty-Five

Today was my first day teaching the third grade language arts class. It went really well. The students are reading a story titled "The Talking Cloth". Part of their lesson is three-letter cluster and unexpected consonants. So before the story we discussed both of those in depth and the students completed a workbook page. I then told them while following along they should listen for words that follow that pattern. Unfortunately there were not many. The consonant patterns are in the student spelling words, so they will have lots of practice with that. After the story we did a cluster map were the students had to give 4 things associated with a character from the story. We used the Aunt who had the cloth and the cloth itself. They did very well on this exercise. I could tell from this exercise that they had grasped the story pretty well. We also did a reading comprehension test in their AR program. They do not get AR points but they do get a reading grade from this test. Scores ranged from 80 - 100. I was pleased.

My little guy spent time in the evening class with me going over his numbers and letters. We used the TOUCH number system and he identified 4 of the 9 without counting the dots. After some leading he could count the dots and tell the number, but he needs to know the number without a leading counter. We will work more tomorrow with that. We also did flashcards with the alphabet. He could identify 20 of the 26 letters. He got 'm' and 'n' mixed up and when I told him the 'm' was 'm' not 'n' he could not figure out what the 'n' was. He also missed 'g, h, and i'; three in a row, does that mean something. I have a set of flashcards that I plan to send home with him and try to get his parents to help. I am not sure that they are helping with the numbers but I must try to get them to help. We did not attempt the sounds, I want him to know what the letters are first. This was only his first assessment, it just gave me and idea of where he is at this moment. I hope to change that within two-weeks.

My long lost student has returned. One of the child's parents is one of our military and leaving for Iraq soon. So he was spending ever minute he could in their presence. I can understand and respect that. He worked very hard today to try to catch up. He even participated in our classroom assignment. We finished up our schedule from the challenge workbook. We created a large schedule on a dry erase board, where students were required to enter the activity, the digital and the analog time. This went very well. Afterward the students had to follow a link in their email to a website that had 10 questions about elapsed time. Most done very well, scores ranged from 70 - 90. One student figured out how he could correct the ones he missed to show a score of 100. Of course I did not accept the second score on praised him for correcting what he missed. Tomorrow we will begin calendars and time, this should be a pretty easy lesson for them.

Friday, October 3, 2008

Friday, Day Twenty-four

Today was very strange. We (my ST and I) have had to adjust our schedule so many times, because others were still working out theirs. It is sometimes hard to keep up. We had only a short time for math today but the students did very well. We began to create a schedule from the challenge workbook. I have a very large dry erase schedule board that we are using. The students must enter an activity, the digital time (displaying a.m. or p.m.) and also the analog time. The story simply gives a rundown of a typical students day. My students must choose the activity and enter the information when it is appropriate. Part of the exercise is getting everything in the correct order. I had an online activity for them but we will finish that on Monday.

I did not get a chance to work with my student on the TOUCH math. He is still trying to catch up from where he missed so many days. My other missing student is supposed to be returning Monday. It will take him a long while to catch up. But he is a very quick study so he will probably be alright.

My 2nd formal evaluation was completed today by my ST. He is an ever encouraging teacher to all of his students including me. I am blessed with encouragement from my family and friends. My ST and I talked about my hesitance in taking over the third grade language arts Monday. I am very excited but like I told him, he has built a routine with the students and it is evident that they are learning. I don't want to throw them off that track. I have some ideas that I am going to try. This is the class that has the very intelligent boy who hates to write. This is how intelligent this child is. They were given a test over the multiplication facts of 7. They were permitted to ask for help one time. When they ask me I always tell them the same thing. This boy had not asked me before I don't think. Today he did. I told him "if you know that 7 *1 = 7, then 7 * 2 is 7 more". He tried that and liked it. So he put 7 tally marks on his paper and every time he came to the next one he would count his tally marks. I was so impressed that he came up with that strategy by himself, when he finally got his name and date on his paper I asked the ST if he could tell the class what he did. The student was so proud, and so was I. By the way he made 100%.

Thursday, Day Twenty-three

Today was quite eventful. The morning time is usually the best time for most of our students, it's after lunch and recess when it becomes difficult for them. But today we started off bad in the third grade. After about an hour of dealing with that everything kind of smoothed out. Everyone settled in to do their work. My hat is off to my ST, he handles it so well. Then it was lunch time.

A new student arrived today. It is always difficult for a new student especially if they join when school has already started. This little guy was having a hard time. I eat lunch in the lunchroom with the students. Many students have begun to sit with me. Not just my students, students I don't even know. But I don't mind, I learn a lot about these students. They tell about home and what they want and what they are planning to do. I enjoy that. The new student was continually stabbing his apple with his knife (he had joined my table also). Then he began to throw the apple pieces at the other students. I went to talk to him. I told him you can't be throwing that at the kids, someone could get hurt. He ran to another table. The lunchroom monitor went to talk with him and he ran outside. By this time someone had gotten the principal involved so he took off outside to find the child. They walked around the school for about 20 minutes. The principal has always seemed to be a very kind man to me, but today he shined. They walked and talked until the child's anger had settled. I went back to my classroom and very shortly into our math lesson, the principal brought the child into the room. Everyone at the school knows that no one can handle a child like my ST. He is truly great with these kids. He stayed with us for a short period then his mother came. One issue that the child is dealing with is bi-polar. That would be hard enough for an adult, but he is only 7. When he came into the classroom he was a different child. The principal did a wonderful thing in letting him walk out his frustrations. It makes me proud to be part of this school, even if I am just a student teacher.

My little guy returned today and was telling us all about his issues with his ears. He still complains that he cannot hear well on one side, but he was ready to work. We did not have anytime to work on his numbers or the sight words that my ST gave him. On top of the missed assignments he had, the other students had taken a T-Pro test. I have not found out exactly what that is but I will do that. He did not do very well, because they are not allowed any assistance on this type of test. I have to find out more about this.

My fourth grade math went very well. We studied a.m. and p.m. The students understood with no problems. I had taken a page from the challenge workbook that I found and gave it to them. I wasn't sure how they would react. I did not tell them that it was a challenge worksheet, just an assignment I felt confident they could complete. They did it with flying colors. Then they had to go online and complete a series of problems dealing with elapsed time, save the page, attach it to an email, and send it to me. They also did this very well. Because we are doing so much with it my ST is also giving them a technology grade. Most people would probably say that I should not have given them the worksheet. It is a challenge sheet which means it is more difficult, but I knew they could do it.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Wednesday, Day Twenty-two

Today seemed to be a very long day. We started our lesson on time in the fourth grade and the students did pretty well. My ST had small clock they each could use, so when I stated the time the students could set their clocks to display that time. I used the line graph that we had just completed for the temperatures in September to demonstrate the many ways that time could be expressed. The students were fascinated by the fact that there is 30 days, 720 hours, 43,200 minutes and 2,592,000 seconds in the month of September. They caught on very well as to how to determine the minutes and seconds for a time period. When it came to them doing the workbook page that was not a real problem; but the internet exercise was a different story. I think that was my fault in the way I set it up. The website gave them a score but it was based on 100 problems and I only required 10 (because of time allowed). So I need to find something better. I will find something else to throw into my review that gives me the idea that they understood time and the ways of displaying it. Tomorrow we will do a lesson over am/pm. I don't think they will have too much trouble with that.

My little guy was absent again. It seems that he has had an earache. So it is best that he stays home until this clears up. I hope that he will be feeling better and back soon. My missing fourth grader is still in limbo. This is apparently some family issues. Hopefully, they can get it all straightened out and he can return soon also.

Monday I will be taking over the third grade language arts. I am both excited and hesitant. My ST has them in a routine that I do not really want to disrupt because I can see that they are learning. By the same token I want to give them more hands on activities, such as crafts. The way these students love to print and color pictures they are just begging for crafts. I must find something to incorporate into the lessons to help them maintain that level of learning. There is a lot out there and they have wonderful teacher's manuals with their books; so I am confident that I can find something. These students are also big on technology so that is a plus.