This week I really got a taste of what I will be doing for the rest of my time in the classroom. It is crazy though! I am not even doing everything, yet I feel like I never have a down minute during the day and there is constantly something to be doing. One of the hardest things about planning this week involved reading groups, computer lab, and science unit. I have to start teaching our next science unit, the solar system, after spring break. While I am thankful that my cooperating teacher gave me a binder of past materials and sample schedule of the activities she has done during this unit, it is still slightly overwhelming to think I have to plan every single part of it. Similarly, I also have to plan activities for the students to do during Computer Lab during my full takeover time. Reading groups is another challenge. As of before break, out of my six groups, I have one that is doing a novel study, which will last longer than one more meeting time. For the other five groups, I had to think ahead and gather materials in order to prepare for the week we get back from break. It’s just a lot to think that during one subject, depending on whom I meet with, I can be engaged in six different activities, etc. This speaks to the importance in differentiation in order to best meet the needs of the students. It is not like I am choosing to do this because I have nothing else to do, but because it is catered to the needs of the students. For example, my top two groups are doing novel studies with books beyond third grade level, The Westing Game and The View From Saturday because they need to be challenged.
Monthly Archives: March 2014
Parent Teacher Conferences
All I can say is, what a night!
We also had parent teacher conferences throughout this whole week, but most of them were on Thursday night. I didn’t get back home until after 9PM. It was a great experience, though! I was amazed how well my coop interacted with the parents. I asked her if she ever got nervous because she seemed so natural. She proceeded to tell me about how her first couple of years she wore a turtleneck because her neck would get so blotchy and red because she was so nervous. After 9 years of teaching, she’s been able to move to normal shirts. She was very positive, yet honest about improvements or areas the student needed to work on. It was interesting to hear with a couple of cases that the students fight the parents when they are at home. They do not want to do homework and are very resistant to their parents trying to help them.
It was also encouraging to hear so many parents tell me how their child talks about me at home. I was honored. As a teacher, it is essential to work with the parents, be positive, encourage them, and support them in trying to be a positive influence in their child’s educational experience.
Sticky Situation
I don’t think anyone ever said that being a teacher is an easy job. This week I had a situation that reminded me of one reason why this is hard. As teachers, it goes far beyond the content. I not only have to make sure these bright stars are learning, but that they are shining emotionally and morally as well.
I had an unfortunate interaction with a student this week as well. So here is what happened: My cooperating teacher was in a meeting at the end of the day so I had to handle the situation entirely alone. We started the positive behavior incentive chart with Isaiah last week. Since he did so well last week, my coop had a conversation with him informing him now in order to get a prize, he has to have two awesome days in a row. It was the end of the day on Thursday and the students were getting the papers from their mailboxes and gathering their coats, backpacks, and lunches from their lockers. Isaiah came up to me inquiring about his prize from yesterday and the current day. I explained t him and showed him since he did not get a star in the morning since he had a breakdown during writing, he did not get a star for the “AM”, so no prize for that day. Then, I showed him that he got all stars for today and praised him for that. However, he was confused and frustrated why he didn’t get a prize for today. I reminded him about the conversation my cooperating had with him about how now he needs to get two days in a row with all stars. He relayed his exasperation and it was evident he was frustrated. I explained that I was unsure and he can take the prize from last week he had in his hand and we’d ask Melissa tomorrow. He started crying, saying negative statements such as, “this is stupid,” and “I don’t even want to do this anymore”, and threw the prize he had back in the bin. He said he didn’t want to come back to school, which broke my heart. I felt awful and even contemplated calling his guardian, forewarning her that he was upset when we left school and explain the situation. Sometimes though, I have to remind myself that even if they are upset, the students know how much I care about them. However, it is always going to be hard to see the lovelies I care about be upset!
Fun with Fractions
Math is a subject that typically produces mixed emotions. And for my students, this is the case. As a teacher, I am constantly trying to think of new ideas and activities that will make the content not only more engaging for my students, but easier for them to understand and ideally, more enjoyable. For my lesson today, I decided to do something totally different than what the curriculum had planned. Sometimes, variation goes a long way and you can’t know if something is going to be successful or not unless you try.
In third grade for the past few weeks we have been learning about fractions. Equivalent fractions, splitting a whole into a equal parts, naming unit fractions, placing fractions on a number line; you name it and chances are we’ve probably done it or will be doing it at sometime in the near future. Up until today, students have had a lot of practice decomposing fractions. In simpler terms, when given a whole, they have to partition it into equal parts. However, today’s lesson was focusing on composing fractions. When given a unit fraction (1/6, 1/8, 1/12, etc), they had to compose the whole from the part they were given.
I modeled what I expected, gave them their supplies, told them what their groups were and got started. Each group was given a pre-cut colored shape with a unit fraction written on it, a piece of large black construction paper, and blue construction paper. They had to use the blue to make the extra pieces needed to complete their whole, then arrange them in a design on the black paper. It was a success! The students worked diligently in the ten minutes they had. As I circulated around the room, I was able to hear student driven conversations. In one group, members assigned roles to one each other right away. After ten minutes, groups had a chance to present their designs. It was awesome to see the students so excited and take pride in what they had created, and having fun with material! 
Reading & Writing Galore
Although each day is a new adventure and there are so many amazing things that take place each day, I have been very impressed with my 3rd graders for their reading and writing lately. Here’s a little update about what they’ve been up to, my experiences leading my first small groups during reading time, and some pictures of what they’ve created.
Book Reports:
My teacher has 3 book reports due each year. I was able to see one a couple of weeks and since the last one is during my take over, I was thankful to know what to expect. The students have a choice whether they want to do a project or written report. Examples of projects they can do include newspaper, model, comic strip from a scene in the book. If students choose a written option, they have to do an introduction, give a brief summary about what the book is about without giving away the ending (they have a hard time with that!), and their opinion about the book. The students that choose the project option still have to complete and turn in a “book report helper”, which includes key story elements including characters, setting, main events throughout the story so those students also get that writing component.
On the day they are due, each student presents to the class. My teacher said that in high school, when she was in speech class she was so nervous because that was the first time she was ever in front of a group of people so wants to give these students a chance because they are going to be speaking in front of people their entire life. Check out some of the examples of book reports my lovely third graders created:
Project: Newspaper Article
Written report
Project
Daily 5 Reading Groups
I have started to take over Daily 5 reading groups. Typically during Daily 5, one group meets with the teacher. The class is split into 6 groups based on their reading level. I started leading two of these groups which was super exciting! It has been fun, but sometimes it is hard because I want to ensure I am giving each student attention and a lot of the times they all want to ask me something or show me something at the same time. But for these groups, we worked with different nonfiction text by Seymour Simon and composed a “book report” sandwich. Each student had a different topic (Lightning, Tornadoes, Tropical Rain forests, Wildfires). Each part of the sandwich had a different task the students had to do. For example, in the picture below, the students had to write the main idea on the meat of the sandwich. Needless to say, before doing this I had to teach the student what the main idea was and how to find it in the text. Other parts of the sandwich included the lettuce, tomato, cheese. On these pieces students had to find interesting and important details that supported their main idea. This activity was a lot of fun and the students really enjoyed it!
Week #6
This past week we had a new addition to our classroom. I’m not referring to a student, but a pet. By a pet, I do not mean a real pet either, but instead a decorative owl made from a paper lantern. My cooperating teacher brought it in and I love it! I think I may like it more than the kids, but when they came in they noticed it right away, but it’s face was turned so they couldn’t see it. They asked why it was facing the wrong way and I told them it was being bashful.
Our new class “pet”
My classroom has a great range of diversity in terms of ability level. For example, we have students ranging from first grade reading level to tenth grade. It is the job of a teacher to develop learning experiences that will allow students, regardless of their ability, to be successful. I never want a student to feel like they have been given up on. One of the biggest reasons I decided to become a teacher was because I have a heart that aims to inspire. Inspire a child to dream, to believe, and develop confidence in their abilities so they are able to see themselves as special, unique, and irreplaceable. I have found that it is students who are the lowest in the class who tend to need the most inspiring and this little boy is one of those students. I found myself stressing out each morning he wasn’t there because I didn’t want him to be overwhelmed with all he had to do when he got back or fall behind. I believe staying calm and finding the time in the day outside of instruction to help those children to catch up allows them to feel cared for and appreciated. It makes it even better when you’re able to see they are understanding the material they missed!
This week I really noticed the great number of responsibilities I am assuming in the classroom and good conversations with my cooperating teacher, which I am really enjoying. As a teacher, there are going to be hard questions to try to answer and situations to address, where there really is not one right way to do things. I have to remind myself that there is no way to know if something will work until it is tried!