Books, Journals, Happy Kids

Social Studies, 3rd Grade, Michigan. I am having my students make books about Michigan's First People, the Native Americans. They will make a page of important details about each tribe we read about. They will use the information in their books to do a group presentation for the chapter summative assessment. I told my students that the pictures they draw have to be accurate of the people they are writing about. So far, so good from the looks of things.

 

I also started Math Journals this week. This allows students to write about math. They have to write 3 sentences or questions about what we did in math that day. Above is a copy of my student's work from working with tally marks. I was very surprised by the clarity of his thinking about math. I can tell from this journal that he really understood the lesson. These help me hear my student's thinking about math and I use them to decide if I need to reteach any topic the following day before moving on to a new lesson.

 

My buddy, J, hasn't been doing too well in school. Teachers seem to isolate him as the trouble maker in the class. So far I've only been able to talk with his parents when he has been acting out. This week though I've noticed that he is showing improved behavior. I wrote this note in the morning. I told him that I wanted to give it to him at the end of the day. Throughout the day I would walk by his desk and tell him I really wanted to give him the note. I noticed he would finish his work and wait quietly or follow directions immediately. It was awesome when I gave it to him at the end of the day. He smiled really big and gave me a hug. You know, as a teacher, I have the ability to shape someone's future in a sense. If I can get J to begin to like school and like his teachers and be interested in his learning, I can change this boy's life. He is not hopeless. He has potential. It's my personal goal to get him to realize his potential by the end of this school year. I'm excited to see the progress he'll make.

Teacher=Hoarder

Today after our staff meeting, the gym teacher mentions that she still needs the gym cleared out and people should come down and take a look at what is there. Christina (my fellow intern) and I decide we should go look. We will be teachers next year. We will be starting from scratch. It's a good thing to build up our resources. Down to the basement gym we go.

SCORE!

I have been really missing the individual white-boards that my students had when I was in Australia. It was such a good way for quick formative assessments. Also, white-boards allowed every student to share an answer. Guess what I found in the basement? Heck yes! Mini white-boards. And not only are they mini white-boards, on one side there is handwriting lines. I can use the boards for quick answers in all subject areas, but even in teaching handwriting (if I have 4th grade and under).

And like that wasn't enough to make my day, I found a bunch of math games. But not just ANY math games...I found Challenge 24!!! You probably don't even care, but let me tell you, when I was in elementary school Challenge 24 was the bomb-digity. I am very excited to be able to use this game in my future classrooms.

Overall, I found some things that will be helpful, and probably some things that I'll want to get rid of eventually, but for now, I am an inspiring teacher WITH resources. Believe me, it feels good. ...except for the fact that now I am becoming something that I never was... Here are some pictures of my car:

This is one of the saddest things. My car has always been clean (because I was so traumatized by the abundant storage space that my mom's car has become). And now...now it's full of an aspiring teacher's resources. Someone give me a classroom quick!

On another note, today I was very amused by one of my students. My teacher wrote on the board numbers for fact families (3,9,12; 4, 2, 6; 5, 6, 11....etc.) She asked the students what was in a fact family. One student said three numbers. Good answer. The next student that she called on said commas. Also, good answer. Yes, there are commas in fact families....but actually, wrong answer. Hmm. How can we make that more clear?

I got good Nails and Shoes :)

I teach good social studies. Yea boy! And I make good cookies. Jacqueline wants to be a baker when she grows up, so she would know. She has learned that she wants to work in the food industry (look at those social studies vocab words!)

And, it is imperative that all teachers have good shoes. And good nails. And let me tell you, I've got both!

Christina, the intern in the other 3rd grade classroom, got a bunch of letters from her students as a writing assignment. She was told how pretty and fancy she was and had lots of compliments on her outfits. I'm glad to make it to that stage in the eyes of my students. And I hoped into the good nails category. It's cuz I use Crackle nail polish. Every third grade girl wants it.

My sister Rachel saw my crackle nail polish and asked if it was professional. I told her that I am joining a profession where people wear sweater vests with pumpkins and kittens on them. She didn't ask me about being professional any more after that!

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.