Lots of Updates

Alright, so here's some things I've been responsible for in my classroom. The top is students pictures of themselves along with some information about who they are. The middle is just an example of the technology in the classroom. That is a smartboard (first generation) and we use it to do grammar lessons.
This last picture I am pretty proud of. Today I wrote positive notes on sticky notes and the kids loved it. Some of them wore the notes around on their shirts and others put them in their planners for their parents to see. I will definitely keep the sticky notes up. I can't believe how excited it made them!

On to other news, I have officially kicked the caffiene. The day right after I wrote the post I quit cold turkey. Though, it wasn't too hard seeing as I don't really drink coffee anyhow. I read something online that said to turn the lights on all the way as soon as you get up, and don't press snooze.
Well, I still press snooze, but the light thing really does work!

I don't know how to teach social studies so it sticks. My kids do great during the lessons. But when it comes to the homework they totally bomb it. :( Part of it is they are still learning to read. Actually, I think that's a big part of it. I mean, what else is social studies apart from reading? You need to read questions and be able to write sentences. I try to make the lessons interactive, and for the most part I think they are.... Well, at least progress reports went home today and parents can get on their kids for having such low grades.

In addition to taking over social studies, I am now responsible for taking over writing! AHHH! I've never taught writing before. How do you teach a class how to write? Do you start with what a sentence is? Or do you start with just writing a response to a topic? Or do you start with a project and spend a long time refining it? I think I'll start with the project and do a writer's workshop on it. That should be pretty fun. I think we'll write myths and legends. I read the Legend of the Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes for social studies and I think the kids would have fun writing their own explanations for the things around them. Plus, I can make it so first we learn about brainstorming and then we map out beginning, middles and ends...and you know, just work on different parts at different times. My hope is to have published myths be Halloween...but it may take longer than a month to get these boys to the press.

Well, that's about it. I really do like teaching. I appreciate that it is different every day.

Hand-made Resources

3rd grade social studies focuses on Michigan. I spent the day searching the web for age-appropriate resources to teach what Michigan's natural resources are and how they've been used in Michigan. I didn't find anything that I thought my 3rd graders would be able to really digest.

So, here goes, I made me own (weebly) website.

It's not the best, but it's not supposed to be exhaustive. I hope it does an adequate job though. Any comments?

Michigan's Natural Resources

Being a teacher (so far)

Learning should be an Adventure

That's what I learned today. I've been planning and teaching social studies all week. I don't know if it's the language barrier or if my kids just take longer to learn things than other children. But, I spent 2 days teaching Michigan's lower and upper peninsulas, and the concept of cities, states, countries, and continents. And even still today I had kids tell me that Detroit was a continent. Oh boy...

Yesterday I was a little frustrated with all of the talking all day long and I portrayed that in the way that I taught. I felt as if I went into the lesson on the defensive. "Jose, turn around. Yahir, stop talking. Amarangie, what is in your hand? Put it down! Bryan, stop making noises." That's basically how I talked to the kids for an entire lesson. And it wore me out. I didn't want to do that again today.

Today, we became expert map readers! It went a little something like this:

Boys and girls, you didn't know it, but all week long I've been training you to be expert map readers. You know all about Michigan and now it's time to go even bigger. Today, boys and girls, we are going to become such expert map readers that we will be able to look at any map and know exactly what it means...

And that's how it went. I feel that it was much more affirmational of the skills that my students already possessed. And not only did my students feel affirmed, they felt invited on an adventure with me.

You see, when it comes to 2 o'clock in the afternoon, kids are tired of learning. And social studies was always the subject I appointed to take naps during. (Maybe that's why I'm having such a hard time teaching it!) But as soon as I approached the classroom with a fresh, positive attitude and a hint of mystery, it seemed that they responded very well to it.

The only drawback though is that I still have to hold their hands while going through lessons. I have to not only model, but model step by step. There has got to be a way to wean students off of needed so much help. They are only 8, but next year is 4th grade, and they don't get their hand held through the lessons in 4th grade. I want to teach them to think critically, but at this point they just don't seem ready for it yet.

I hope it comes soon.

Hello Folks,

It's been awhile since I've given a pretty good update. So far, so good.
I got a Spanish learning program (actually, Rosetta Stone). It's really sweet and top-notch. I feel like I have so little time to do the program though between student teaching, the gym, homework, and trying to have a social life. My goal is to get through Lesson 2 this week and I usually listen to the supplemental CD a couple of times in my car throughout the week.

My student teaching experience is going well. I do believe that the teacher read-alouds are my favorite thing to do. And I really do think that I rather be an elementary school teacher in a self-contained classroom (have the same students all day) than a specialized science teacher (get all of the school's students every day). I like being able to work with the students for an extended amount of time. I like being able to set goals with them (academically and behaviorally) and see them succeed or at least get closer to the goals.

This week, and from here on out I suppose, I am in charge of Social Studies. 3rd grade SS consists mostly of Michigan and Michigan's history. We are starting by learning to read maps. Stuff like the compass rose, map keys, longitude and latitude. Today we went over the state of Michigan (UP and LP) and the 5 Great Lakes. We went over this stuff last week, too...and they still don't have it all down. I'm hoping that the homework I made up and assigned will solidify some info for them. Tomorrow we move on to cardinal and intermediate directions. I plan on using all 45 minutes to teach them the ideas and language associated with direction.

We also started literacy centers this week. I am in charge of the guided reading. We read a short story and then do some language and comprehension questions surrounding the story.

Here's my problem: It is too early in the morning. And most of the time I'm still sleepy until after lunch. Sometimes coffee gives me really bad stomach aches. Today it didn't, but it didn't taste good either. I have a couple of things I want to try. First, I want to accept that maybe I do like coffee and it does help me to really wake up in the morning. Secondly, I think I want to make coffee at home instead of waiting til I get to school to make some. At home I have milk that I can add to the coffee, and sugar. At school, there isn't any milk to add and coffee with just sugar tastes quite terrible. Another thing I could do was get hooked on tea....or stop by the gas station every morning to get a Pepsi zero. But, I don't want to rot my teeth away. Basically, I don't really think there's any good solution. How in the world can I wake up without adding a bunch of caffeine to my body? I pray for energy every morning...

I'll put some pictures up eventually of what I've done in the classroom and with assignments. I will be happy when I get my own classroom one day.

I hope all you lovely people are doing well. Seek Jesus first. I'm trying to do it myself. Word.

Read Alouds

Today I found out that I love reading stories aloud. Previously, I thought I hated it.
Nope.
It is indeed love at first sight...er...um...word.

It is so cool to get all of the kids captivated in a story, making predictions, connections, and putting themselves in the characters shoes. I read Yurtle the Turtle and the first couple chapters of Holes. Can't wait til next week's read aloud time. :)

My life from my Camera Phone

My mentor teacher asked me what we could add to the little people so that the students could write about themselves and personalize it. I went online and googled "open book graphic" and found the outline pictured above. I printed it and then cut out some lined paper and glued it on. We'll make copies and put the person somewhere around their book. (Of course, they will decorate their own little people to look like themselves.) I really like the way it looks!

Earlier today in my MSU class we were asked to write/draw/etc. about ourselves. Here's a snapshot from that:

I think I should go into stick people art. I think I'm pretty good at it! ;)

Alex gave me a crayon highlighter yesterday. IT. IS. AMAZING. You have no idea. It's a crayon. And it's a highlighter!!! We have to wear name-tags in my MSU class right now. Do you like mine?

And yeah, we have to look all sweet and spiffy for our classes. We were told that now we are graduate students, and graduate students must be professional. So, yeah, I'm a professional. What now boy!

Today I am heading to the library to find some resources for learning Spanish. On iGoogle I added some Spanish widgets. One gives 3 Spanish words of the day and the other introduces words and pronunciations along with phrases. I am going to get this down!

Alright, time to pay attention in class again. Shh! Don't tell!

Yo no hablo español

One day down. Some crazy odd number of days left to go.

It wasn't a terrible day. I survived. And I'll try it all over again tomorrow.

I feel like I got very blindsided today. I guess I didn't really know exactly what to expect. My mentor teacher had told me that I wouldn't really need to know Spanish in her class. SOOOO not true. None of the parents speak English! All of the students walked in this morning and my teacher begins greeting them in Spanish and giving them instructions in Spanish and then talking to their parents in Spanish. I just smiled and nodded at all the kids as they walked in. I didn't want to be the odd one out.

But in the classroom I suppose Spanish isn't really used. A couple of times my mentor teacher would give directions in both languages when she wanted to make sure each kid completely understood what she was saying.

There is one boy, we will call him Josue. I'm not really sure how much English he knows or if he is just acting like he doesn't know much English. I couldn't get him to say anything to me in English today but if I asked him a question in English he would respond to it in Spanish. Sooo, I just don't know about him.

The day was pretty slow. Like I said, my mentor teacher hasn't assigned any roles to me yet, so I basically just sat there as she explained the classroom rules and expectations. Every once in a while I would get to hand out papers or books. I spent around 30 minutes making copies of some math review practice. And after the students had taken a math assessment I was the lucky one who got to grade them. I feel like I spent the majority of today as a teacher's aide and that is not what I'm supposed to be doing in the classroom. I'm hoping it changes into something more significant from here. We will see.

We did have an impromptu 3rd grade staff meeting after lunch. Because my school only goes to 3rd grade they only have to worry about 3rd grade MEAP vs. 3-5th grade. So the meeting was to discuss how to get better scores on the MEAP test. Some interesting points were brought up. At first we were going to look at last year's 3rd grade testing scores and teach more heavily on the areas that needed attention. Then my softball coach (aka science teacher for the school) mentioned that the students that took the MEAP last year are gone and that we need to look at the needs of the students who are the current 3rd graders. That to me is a very important observation. There's no reason to teach based on previous student's scores because each class is completely different from the next and has different strengths and weaknesses.

Overall though, I was really tired from not doing anything engaging all day and can't really remember what the meeting was all about. Boo.

Also today, my teacher said she had a class and left school an hour early. I was stuck doing pretty boring alphabetizing worksheets with the class. Josue kept talking to me in Spanish and I kept talking to him in English and telling him to say it in English. It was pretty hopeless. I had to figure out through trial and error exactly how dismissal goes to leave school. I think I have a better grip on it now.

It was just a silly day it seems. I didn't do anything fantastic. I wanted to do something fantastic.

And then, to top it off, I went to get my oil changed and the stupid guys were totally trying to take advantage of my ignorance pertaining to cars. I wanted to kick them in their faces. But I didn't. I got my oil changed and ignored all their pleas to fix a million other things on my car.

Being home has been refreshing. I talked to Alex on the phone. I played with Zeke and Emily. I ate dinner. I cleaned my room. I did laundry. Yes, productive and refreshing indeed. It really is true what they say about absolutely needing a hobby if you're going to be a teacher. I need to find a gym pronto to hook up with and escape to after school is over. Google search, here I come.

Adios! Buenas Noches.

And so it begins

School starts in the morning. I've spent the whole weekend in Tennessee. We drove through Friday morning and drove back Sunday night. I'm pretty tired. I still need to get some clothes ready for tomorrow. I'll worry about the rest of the week when I get home tomorrow afternoon.

I don't actually know what I'll be doing tomorrow. My teacher hasn't assigned any specific tasks for me to do besides watch. I'm dreading the watching. I know I need to watch and observe because that's half of learning, but still I have done a lot of that in classrooms and it gets really boring really quick.

Alex's mom gave me an English/Spanish picture dictionary and went over a couple of phrases that will be helpful to know. I think I'm halfway fluent by now ;)

Besides school I have quite a few other things to do. Rachel T started asking me about running the Turkey Trot with her on Thanksgiving. I haven't run a 10k for a couple of years, but I told Emily she'll have to start training with me tomorrow. I need to find a good place to run around my house here. There's a track in Dearborn, but there's got to be something closer that's still safe. I don't know. I'll have to look around. But I have to start running soon or else I'll be doing a turkey crawl instead of a trot.

Buenas noches mis amigos. I hope you all had a great labor Day weekend. Have fun at work in the morning :)